1
as in ruthless
having or showing a lack of sympathy or tender feelings
an affectless analysis of the cost of the war purely in pecuniary terms
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in stoic
not feeling or showing emotion
the accused remained affectless throughout the long trial
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of affectless
Avoiding romance and melodrama, deBoer writes in an affectless register that mirrors Alice’s dissociation.
—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
The clip is entirely affectless—an authentic moment of pure lyricism.
—
John Seabrook,
The New Yorker,
5 Dec. 2022
Actually, Stone’s voiceover isn’t affectless.
—
Daniel Fienberg,
The Hollywood Reporter,
13 Sep. 2022
The use of an A.I. program to replicate Warhol’s flat, affectless speech to read the diary entries had a strangely fitting logic.
—
Steve Dollar,
Los Angeles Times,
16 Aug. 2022
See All Example Sentences for affectless
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
The clip is entirely affectless—an authentic moment of pure lyricism.
—
John Seabrook,
The New Yorker,
5 Dec. 2022
Actually, Stone’s voiceover isn’t affectless.
—
Daniel Fienberg,
The Hollywood Reporter,
13 Sep. 2022
The use of an A.I. program to replicate Warhol’s flat, affectless speech to read the diary entries had a strangely fitting logic.
—
Steve Dollar,
Los Angeles Times,
16 Aug. 2022
See All Example Sentences for affectless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for affectless
Adjective
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Canadian quartet Truck Violence have been sloshing together these subgenres in a ruthless manner for several years now, and their sophomore album and debut for the Flenser aims for even higher drops between those peaks and valleys.
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There was relative peace for 11 years, until a second civil war erupted in 1983, when leaders in Khartoum imposed sharia (Islamic) law and accelerated repression of the southern Christian rebels, which ultimately allowed a ruthless military officer, Omar al-Bashir, to come to power in 1989.
Adjective
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Instead, in much of popular culture, men often get messages encouraging them to be stoic and unemotional.
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Your instinct may be to focus on logistics while avoiding your emotions… but unfortunately for you, this season is anything but stoic.
Adjective
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The poem that precedes it, the Iliad, is a cruel and beautiful work, the ultimate story of war; the Odyssey has its warlike passages, but its central energies seem almost commonplace beside the merciless fury of Achilles.
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Humility is the posture; the standard is merciless.
Adjective
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Oscar Wilde, for example, reposes beneath a hulking deity whose iconoclastic castration, back in 1961, did little to restrain pilgrims seeking to smear red lips across his stony physique.
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Instead of looking like a sleek urban loft, the room can quickly start to feel cold, stony, and impersonal.
Adjective
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Nilsson’s depiction of bodies past their prime conjures not the pitiless naturalism of Joan Semmel or Alice Neel, but something friskier, more delighted.
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As with the others, the pitiless treatment only ends when they’re slaughtered.
Cite this Entry
“Affectless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/affectless. Accessed 26 Jun. 2026.
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