Brutal
Brutal adjective - Difficult to endure.
Usage example: brutal hard labor in the hot sun
Heartbreaking and brutal are semantically related. In some cases you can use "Heartbreaking" instead an adjective "Brutal".
Heartbreaking
Heartbreaking adjective - Causing unhappiness.
Brutal and heartbreaking are semantically related. Sometimes you can use "Brutal" instead an adjective "Heartbreaking".
Both words in one sentence
- It can also extend to ongoing characters from the other side, whom Weber has gone to considerable pain to make you like — just before killing them off in brutal and heartbreaking fashion.
Source: Anyone Can Die / Literature -
This makes the fact that it gets destroyed during his brutal, undeserved beat-down rather heartbreaking.
Source: #1 Dime -
It repeatedly proclaims how it's non-humanity makes it superior to you, throws some brutal, heartbreaking insults your way, and eventually CUTS OFF YOUR HANDS WITH A ROTARY SAW.
Source: Mission Control Is Off Its Meds
Cite this Source
Heartbreaking and Brutal. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 08, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/brutal/heartbreaking
Brutal & Heartbreaking. N.p., 2016. Web. 08 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/brutal/heartbreaking>.
Heartbreaking or Brutal. 2016. Accessed August 08, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/brutal/heartbreaking.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "brutal" and "heartbreaking" have occurred on timeline