sadists
They inflict pain
Sadists are people who derive pleasure from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others.
The term applies across a spectrum—from clinical psychology, where sadism is a personality disorder, to BDSM communities, where sadists consensually inflict pain for mutual enjoyment.
Casually, it describes anyone who seems to enjoy others' discomfort: The gym teacher was a sadist who loved making us run in the rain.
Deliberate harm-causing disposition
- tormentorOne who causes anguish
- pleasureHappy, satisfied feeling
- sufferingSustained experience of distress
- painBodily or emotional distress
dominance · psychopath · antisocial · malice · schadenfreude · callousness · abuser · torturer
Writer whose name became perversion
- villainWicked story antagonist
- antagonistOne who opposes another
- gothicDark, mysterious aesthetic
- libertineOne lacking moral restraint
Justine · philosophy · transgression · darkness · depravity · taboo · Enlightenment · provocateur
Having superior influence
- consensualInvolving mutual permission
- kinkTight twisted spot
- submissiveReadily yielding to control
- dungeonSubterranean prison chamber
safeword · leather · bondage · discipline · roleplay · fetish · scene · top
cruelty
Deliberate harm-causing disposition
- tormentorOne who causes anguish
- pleasureHappy, satisfied feeling
- sufferingSustained experience of distress
pain · dominance · psychopath · antisocial · malice · schadenfreude · callousness · abuser · torturer · predator
Marquis de Sade
Writer whose name became perversion
- villainWicked story antagonist
- antagonistOne who opposes another
- gothicDark, mysterious aesthetic
libertine · Justine · philosophy · transgression · darkness · depravity · taboo · Enlightenment · provocateur · scandalous
dominant
Having superior influence
- consensualInvolving mutual permission
- kinkTight twisted spot
- submissiveReadily yielding to control
dungeon · safeword · leather · bondage · discipline · roleplay · fetish · scene · top · paddle
- tormentorstormentor, tormenter, torturer, torturers, persecutor
- kinkdom, domme, submissives, master, slave
- criticscritic, critics, criticizer, criticizers, faultfinder
- troublemakerstroublemaker, rascals, delinquents, imps, brats
sadistsempaths
Those attuning to others' feelings
altruists · bleeding hearts · humanitarians · caregivers · healers
sadistsaltruists
People motivated by others' welfare
nurturers · benefactors · protectors · Good Samaritans · philanthropists