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the quality or state of being .
an act, thing, or circumstance.
Contemporary Examples

How could it not given that that life was lived as a serial witness to every kind of 20th century atrocity?
Pale Fire and the Cold War: Redefining Vladimir Nabokov’s Masterpiece Michael Weiss October 12, 2013

Fueled by atrocity and a blitzkrieg of gains in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State has enjoyed a meteoric climb to notoriety.
Watching ISIS Come to Power Again Elliot Ackerman September 6, 2014

My Shanghai Papa had predicted that atrocity was awaiting me and wanted to prepare me for that.
Ping Fu’s Journey from Cultural Revolution Orphan to Geomagic CEO Katie Baker January 19, 2013

Fujisaki’s regret sounded genuine enough, but some men wondered how anyone could apologize for an atrocity.
Healing the Wounds of Bataan Michael Norman September 18, 2009

How will we be able to advocate for human rights or stand for “American values” if we fail to act now against such an atrocity?
Why We Must Intervene in Syria, a Veteran Makes the Case Mark R. Jacobson September 9, 2013

Historical Examples

The country, a little later England and the entire civilized world, stood aghast at the atrocity of the incident.
Peggy Owen and Liberty Lucy Foster Madison

It was not content with atrocity, it must needs add cynicism.
Napoleon the Little Victor Hugo

Few people go there and its literature, save that which grew out of the atrocity campaign, is meager and unsatisfactory.
An African Adventure Isaac F. Marcosson

He revealed the atrocity of his mistress; and she was sent to prison.
New Italian sketches John Addington Symonds

Was not this, then, security enough that they would never again perpetrate a crime of like atrocity?
The Expositor’s Bible: The Book of Genesis Marcus Dods

noun (pl) -ties
behaviour or an action that is wicked or ruthless
the fact or quality of being atrocious
(usually pl) acts of extreme cruelty, esp against prisoners or civilians in wartime
n.

1530s, from Middle French atrocité or directly from Latin atrocitatem (nominative atrocitas) “cruelty, fierceness, harshness,” noun of quality from atrox “fierce, cruel, frightful,” from PIE *atro-ek-, from root *ater- “fire” (see atrium) + *okw- “see” (see eye (n.)); thus “of fiery or threatening appearance.” The meaning “an atrocious deed” is from 1793.