Mean vs. Cruel — What's the Difference?
By Fiza Rafique & Maham Liaqat — Updated on March 8, 2024
"Mean" implies unkindness or spite, often in a petty or selfish way, whereas "cruel" denotes a deeper level of intentional harm or suffering.
Difference Between Mean and Cruel
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
"Mean" and "cruel" are both adjectives used to describe negative behaviors, but they differ in intensity and implication. "Mean" typically refers to actions or words that are unkind, petty, or spiteful. It often involves being hurtful to others through words or minor actions, usually driven by selfishness, jealousy, or insensitivity. "Cruel," on the other hand, indicates a more severe level of unkindness that involves causing pain or suffering to others, often deliberately and with a lack of empathy. Cruelty can be both physical and psychological, and it implies a deeper level of malevolence or indifference to the suffering of others.
While "mean" behavior can sometimes be the result of thoughtlessness or a momentary lapse in judgment, "cruel" actions are generally more premeditated and indicate a disregard for the well-being of others. For instance, spreading a harmful rumor to intentionally damage someone's reputation would be considered mean, but physically harming someone or subjecting them to severe emotional abuse is cruel. This distinction highlights the difference in the level of intent and the potential impact of the behaviors.
In terms of consequences, mean actions might lead to hurt feelings, temporary disputes, or social discord among individuals. These actions can often be resolved through communication or apologies. Cruel behavior, however, can have more lasting and serious consequences, including trauma, long-term psychological damage, or even physical harm. The severity of cruel actions necessitates more significant interventions, such as legal action or professional counseling.
Society's response to mean and cruel behaviors also differs. While mean behavior might be dismissed as petty or immature, prompting social correction or personal growth, cruel behavior is more likely to be condemned by society and could result in legal penalties or social ostracism. This reflects the broader recognition of the harm that cruelty can cause, not just to individuals but to the fabric of society as a whole.
Both mean and cruel behaviors can have a negative impact on relationships and communities, but understanding the distinction between them is important for addressing and mitigating their effects. Encouraging empathy, kindness, and respect for others is crucial in reducing both mean and cruel behaviors and fostering a more compassionate and understanding society.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
Refers to actions or words that are unkind, petty, or spiteful.
Indicates causing pain or suffering, often deliberately.
Intensity
Generally less severe, can be thoughtless or petty.
More severe, with a deeper level of malevolence.
Consequences
Can lead to hurt feelings or temporary disputes.
May result in trauma, long-term damage, or physical harm.
Societal Response
Often seen as immature, correctable behavior.
Condemned, may result in legal action or social ostracism.
Underlying Motive
Can stem from selfishness, jealousy, or insensitivity.
Often involves a disregard for the well-being of others.
Compare with Definitions
Mean
Exhibiting small-scale or petty unkindness.
It was mean to hide her books as a joke.
Cruel
Involves causing deliberate harm or suffering.
The cruel treatment of animals in the facility sparked outrage.
Mean
Often resolvable through communication or apologies.
After a heartfelt apology, they moved past the mean words.
Cruel
Can lead to significant psychological or physical harm.
The child's cruel upbringing had long-lasting effects.
Mean
There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics: For a data set, the arithmetic mean, also known as average or arithmetic average, is a central value of a finite set of numbers: specifically, the sum of the values divided by the number of values. The arithmetic mean of a set of numbers x1, x2, ..., xn is typically denoted by x ¯ {\displaystyle {\bar {x}}} .
Cruel
Indicates a profound lack of empathy or compassion.
Her cruel dismissal of their struggles showed no empathy.
Mean
Intend to convey or refer to (a particular thing); signify
I don't know what you mean
I meant you, not Jones
He was asked to clarify what his remarks meant
Cruel
Often has legal and social ramifications.
His cruel actions led to legal consequences and social ostracism.
Mean
Intend (something) to occur or be the case
It was meant to be a secret
They mean no harm
Cruel
Poses significant challenges to societal norms and values.
Addressing cruelty in communities requires a concerted effort.
Mean
Have as a consequence or result
The proposals are likely to mean another hundred closures
Heavy rain meant that the pitch was waterlogged
Cruel
Disposed to inflict pain or suffering
A cruel tyrant.
Mean
Unwilling to give or share things, especially money; not generous
They're not mean with the garlic
She felt mean not giving a tip
Cruel
Causing or characterized by severe pain, suffering, or distress
Cruel treatment.
A cruel remark.
Mean
Unkind, spiteful, or unfair
I was mean to them over the festive season
Cruel
Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.
The supervisor was very cruel to Josh, as he would always give Josh the hardest, most degrading work he could find.
Mean
(especially of a place) poor in quality and appearance; shabby
Her home was mean and small
Cruel
Harsh; severe.
Mean
Very skilful or effective; excellent
She dances a mean tango
He's a mean cook
Cruel
(slang) Cool; awesome; neat.
Mean
(of a quantity) calculated as a mean; average
Participants in the study had a mean age of 35 years
Cruel
(nonstandard) To a great degree; terribly.
Mean
Equally far from two extremes
Hope is the mean virtue between despair and presumption
Cruel
To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)
Mean
The value obtained by dividing the sum of several quantities by their number; an average
Acid output was calculated by taking the mean of all three samples
Cruel
To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.
Mean
A condition, quality, or course of action equally removed from two opposite extremes
The measure expresses a mean between saving and splashing out
Cruel
See Crewel.
Mean
To be used to convey; denote
"'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things'" (Lewis Carroll).
Cruel
Disposed to give pain to others; willing or pleased to hurt, torment, or afflict; destitute of sympathetic kindness and pity; savage; inhuman; hard-hearted; merciless.
Behold a people cometh from the north country; . . . they are cruel and have no mercy.
Mean
To act as a symbol of; signify or represent
In this poem, the budding flower means youth.
Cruel
Causing, or fitted to cause, pain, grief, or misery.
Cruel wars, wasting the earth.
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath for it was cruel.
Mean
To intend to convey or indicate
"No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous" (Henry Adams).
Cruel
Attended with cruetly; painful; harsh.
You have seen cruel proof of this man's strength.
Mean
To have as a purpose or an intention; intend
I meant to go running this morning, but I overslept.
Cruel
Lacking or showing kindness or compassion or mercy
Mean
To design, intend, or destine for a certain purpose or end
A building that was meant for storage.
A student who was meant to be a scientist.
Cruel
(of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering;
A barbarous crime
Brutal beatings
Cruel tortures
Stalin's roughshod treatment of the kulaks
A savage slap
Vicious kicks
Mean
To have as a consequence; bring about
Friction means heat.
Cruel
(of weapons or instruments) causing suffering and pain;
Brutal instruments of torture
Cruel weapons of war
Mean
To have the importance or value of
The opinions of the critics meant nothing to him. She meant so much to me.
Cruel
Used of circumstances (especially weather) that cause suffering;
Brutal weather
Northern winters can be cruel
A cruel world
A harsh climate
A rigorous climate
Unkind winters
Mean
To have intentions of a specified kind; be disposed
They mean well but lack tact.
Mean
Lacking in kindness; unkind
The teacher was not being mean in asking you to be quiet.
Mean
Cruel, spiteful, or malicious
A mean boy who liked to make fun of others.
Mean
Expressing spite or malice
Gave me a mean look.
Mean
Tending toward or characterized by cruelty or violence
Mean streets.
Mean
Extremely unpleasant or disagreeable
The meanest storm in years.
Mean
Ignoble; base
A mean motive. ].
Mean
Occupying a middle or intermediate position between two extremes.
Mean
Intermediate in size, extent, quality, time, or degree; medium.
Mean
Something having a position, quality, or condition midway between extremes; a medium.
Mean
A number that typifies a set of numbers, such as a geometric mean or an arithmetic mean.
Mean
The average value of a set of numbers.
Mean
(Logic) The middle term in a syllogism.
Mean
Means (used with a sing. or pl. verb) A method, a course of action, or an instrument by which an act can be accomplished or an end achieved.
Mean
Money, property, or other wealth
You ought to live within your means.
Mean
Great wealth
A woman of means.
Mean
To intend.
Mean
(transitive) To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention.
I didn't mean to knock your tooth out.
I mean to go to Baddeck this summer.
I meant to take the car in for a smog check, but it slipped my mind.
The authors meant a challenge to the status quo.
Mean
(intransitive) To have as intentions of a given kind.
Don't be angry; she meant well.
Mean
To intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine.
Actually this desk was meant for the subeditor.
Man was not meant to question such things.
Mean
(transitive) To intend an ensuing comment or statement as an explanation.[https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/i_mean%20I%20mean]
Your reasoning seems needlessly abstruse, complex, and verbose for me. I mean, could you dumb it down for my sake?
Mean
To convey (a meaning).
Mean
(transitive) To convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea).
The sky is red this morning—does that mean we're in for a storm?
Mean
(transitive) Of a word, symbol etc: to have reference to, to signify.
What does this hieroglyph mean?
Mean
(transitive) Of a person (or animal etc): to intend to express, to imply, to hint at, to allude.
I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean.
He is a little different, if you know what I mean.
Mean
(transitive) To have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says).
Does she really mean what she said to him last night?
Say what you mean and mean what you say.
Mean
(usually with to) To be of some level of importance.
That little dog meant everything to me.
Formality and titles mean nothing in their circle.
Mean
To lament.
Mean
(obsolete) Common; general.
Mean
Of a common or low origin, grade, or quality; common; humble.
A man of mean parentage
A mean abode
Mean
Low in quality or degree; inferior; poor; shabby.
A mean appearance
A mean dress
Mean
Without dignity of mind; destitute of honour; low-minded; spiritless; base.
A mean motive
It was mean of you to steal that little girl's piggy bank.
Mean
Of little value or worth; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.
Mean
Ungenerous; stingy; tight-fisted.
He's so mean. I've never seen him spend so much as five pounds on presents for his children.
Mean
Disobliging; pettily offensive or unaccommodating.
Mean
Intending to cause harm, successfully or otherwise; bearing ill will towards another.
Watch out for her, she's mean. I said good morning to her, and she punched me in the nose.
Mean
Powerful; fierce; strong.
It must have been a mean typhoon that levelled this town.
Mean
Difficult, tricky.
This problem is mean!
Mean
Having the mean (see noun below) as its value; average.
The mean family has 2.4 children.
Mean
(obsolete) Middling; intermediate; moderately good, tolerable.
Mean
A method or course of action used to achieve some result.
Mean
An intermediate step or intermediate steps.
Mean
Something which is intermediate or in the middle; an intermediate value or range of values; a medium.
Mean
The middle part of three-part polyphonic music; now specifically, the alto part in polyphonic music; an alto instrument.
Mean
(statistics) The average of a set of values, calculated by summing them together and dividing by the number of terms; the arithmetic mean.
Mean
(mathematics) Any function of multiple variables that satisfies certain properties and yields a number representative of its arguments; or, the number so yielded; a measure of central tendency.
Mean
(mathematics) Either of the two numbers in the middle of a conventionally presented proportion, as 2 and 3 in 1:2=3:6.
Mean
To have in the mind, as a purpose, intention, etc.; to intend; to purpose; to design; as, what do you mean to do?
What mean ye by this service ?
Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.
I am not a SpaniardTo say that it is yours and not to mean it.
Mean
To signify; to indicate; to import; to denote.
What mean these seven ewe lambs ?
Go ye, and learn what that meaneth.
Mean
To have a purpose or intention.
Mean
Destitute of distinction or eminence; common; low; vulgar; humble.
The mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself.
Mean
Wanting dignity of mind; low-minded; base; destitute of honor; spiritless; as, a mean motive.
Can you imagine I so mean could prove,To save my life by changing of my love ?
Mean
Of little value or account; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.
The Roman legions and great Cæsar foundOur fathers no mean foes.
Mean
Of poor quality; as, mean fare.
Mean
Penurious; stingy; close-fisted; illiberal; as, mean hospitality.
Mean
Occupying a middle position; middle; being about midway between extremes.
Being of middle age and a mean stature.
Mean
Intermediate in excellence of any kind.
According to the fittest style of lofty, mean, or lowly.
Mean
Average; having an intermediate value between two extremes, or between the several successive values of a variable quantity during one cycle of variation; as, mean distance; mean motion; mean solar day.
Mean
That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes of place, time, or number; the middle point or place; middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of extremes or excess; moderation; measure.
But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude.
There is a mean in all things.
The extremes we have mentioned, between which the wellinstracted Christian holds the mean, are correlatives.
Mean
A quantity having an intermediate value between several others, from which it is derived, and of which it expresses the resultant value; usually, unless otherwise specified, it is the simple average, formed by adding the quantities together and dividing by their number, which is called an arithmetical mean. A geometrical mean is the nth root of the product of the n quantities being averaged.
Mean
That through which, or by the help of which, an end is attained; something tending to an object desired; intermediate agency or measure; necessary condition or coagent; instrument.
Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the conversion of the heathen to Christ.
You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements.
Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean.
By this means he had them more at vantage.
What other means is left unto us.
Mean
Resources; property, revenue, or the like, considered as the condition of easy livelihood, or an instrumentality at command for effecting any purpose; disposable force or substance.
Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.
Mean
A part, whether alto or tenor, intermediate between the soprano and base; a middle part.
The mean is drowned with your unruly base.
Mean
Meantime; meanwhile.
Mean
A mediator; a go-between.
He wooeth her by means and by brokage.
If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.
The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so good as that on the other.
Mean
An average of n numbers computed by adding some function of the numbers and dividing by some function of n
Mean
Mean or intend to express or convey;
You never understand what I mean!
What do his words intend?
Mean
Have as a logical consequence;
The water shortage means that we have to stop taking long showers
Mean
Denote or connote;
`maison' means `house' in French
An example sentence would show what this word means
Mean
Have in mind as a purpose;
I mean no harm
I only meant to help you
She didn't think to harm me
We thought to return early that night
Mean
Have a specified degree of importance;
My ex-husband means nothing to me
Happiness means everything
Mean
Intend to refer to;
I'm thinking of good food when I talk about France
Yes, I meant you when I complained about people who gossip!
Mean
Destine or designate for a certain purpose;
These flowers were meant for you
Mean
Approximating the statistical norm or average or expected value;
The average income in New England is below that of the nation
Of average height for his age
The mean annual rainfall
Mean
Characterized by malice;
A hateful thing to do
In a mean mood
Mean
Having or showing an ignoble lack of honor or morality;
That liberal obedience without which your army would be a base rabble
Taking a mean advantage
Chok'd with ambition of the meaner sort
Something essentially vulgar and meanspirited in politics
Mean
Excellent;
Famous for a mean backhand
Mean
Marked by poverty befitting a beggar;
A beggarly existence in the slums
A mean hut
Mean
Used of persons or behavior; characterized by or indicative of lack of generosity;
A mean person
He left a miserly tip
Mean
Used of sums of money; so small in amount as to deserve contempt
Mean
Often results from thoughtlessness or insensitivity.
His mean comment about her performance was unnecessary.
Mean
Can lead to social discord among individuals.
The mean behavior caused a rift within the group.
Mean
Can be a catalyst for personal growth or change.
Recognizing his mean actions, he vowed to be more considerate.
Common Curiosities
How does cruel behavior differ from mean behavior?
Cruel behavior involves causing pain or suffering, often deliberately, and is more severe and malevolent than mean behavior.
Can mean behavior lead to cruelty?
While mean behavior is less severe, unchecked or escalating mean actions could potentially develop into cruelty.
What defines mean behavior?
Mean behavior is characterized by unkind, petty, or spiteful actions or words, often driven by selfish motives.
How does society typically respond to mean behavior?
Society may view mean behavior as immature or petty, often prompting social correction or personal growth.
What are the consequences of cruel behavior?
Cruel behavior can result in significant psychological or physical harm, with more lasting and serious consequences.
What are the consequences of mean behavior?
Mean behavior can lead to hurt feelings, temporary disputes, or social discord, but is often resolvable.
How can society address cruel behavior?
Addressing cruel behavior requires legal action, counseling, and fostering a culture of empathy and respect.
What motivates cruel behavior?
Cruel behavior is often motivated by a disregard for the well-being of others, lacking empathy and compassion.
Are there interventions for mean behavior in schools?
Schools often implement anti-bullying programs and promote empathy to address and mitigate mean behavior.
What motivates mean behavior?
Mean behavior can stem from selfishness, jealousy, insensitivity, or a momentary lapse in judgment.
How can individuals address mean behavior?
Addressing mean behavior involves communication, apologies, and efforts towards personal growth and empathy.
What societal response does cruel behavior provoke?
Cruel behavior is condemned by society and can result in legal penalties or social ostracism due to its severe impact.
What role does empathy play in preventing mean and cruel behaviors?
Empathy is crucial in preventing both mean and cruel behaviors, as it fosters understanding and compassion towards others.
How do mean and cruel behaviors affect relationships?
Both behaviors can damage relationships, but cruel behavior has a more severe impact, potentially causing lasting harm.
Can cruel behavior be rehabilitated?
Rehabilitation for cruel behavior may involve counseling, therapy, and long-term efforts to develop empathy and remorse.
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Written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
Co-written by
Maham Liaqat
