Definition of affectlessnext
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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of affectless But Kardashian’s performance, stiff and affectless without a single authentic note, is exactly what the writing, also stiff and affectless without a single authentic note, merits. — Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 4 Nov. 2025 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 Skarsgård does well with the character’s daytime ambiguity (tight-faced, affectless) and nighttime plotting (observant, physically lithe). — Vulture, 27 Apr. 2022 See All Example Sentences for affectless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for affectless
Adjective
  • Sure, that sounds ridiculous for a season about rape, infidelity, mass murder, suicide, and society’s ruthless commodification of those very things.
    — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 6 Oct. 2026
  • In part, Iran’s political system and ruthless crackdown on protest has given it some insulation from the economic destruction imposed by the blockade and sanctions.
    — David Goldman, CNN Money, 6 Oct. 2026
Adjective
  • After the blinding start to a decisive Game 3 against the Las Vegas Aces, after the crawl through quicksand for the rest of it, after the bloody lip and a stoic walk off the floor while cannons spit celebratory smoke into the air.
    — Brian Hamilton, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Like some of the music, the album artwork also pays homage to the animal world and our interconnectedness—the abstract piece offers a single line drawing that weaves in outlines of a panting dog, screeching cat, stoic bunny, and wise owl.
    — Selena Fragassi, SPIN, 28 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • Cora, the granddaughter of a woman kidnapped from West Africa and sold into slavery, flees her captor’s plantation, plunging her into the book’s alternate steampunk reality where she is pursued by the merciless slave catcher Ridgeway.
    — David Faris, TheWeek, 16 Sep. 2026
  • But the movie very much belongs to Trinca and Bruni Tedeschi, just as Anna belongs to the merciless stranger.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 8 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • 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.
    — Emily Cox, ARTnews.com, 22 May 2026
  • Instead of looking like a sleek urban loft, the room can quickly start to feel cold, stony, and impersonal.
    — Natasha Bazika, Martha Stewart, 9 May 2026
Adjective
  • About two months after his testimony, Pujo’s report mapped out in pitiless detail all the interrelationships between Morgan and his small network of industrialists.
    — Business Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sep. 2026
  • Nilsson’s depiction of bodies past their prime conjures not the pitiless naturalism of Joan Semmel or Alice Neel, but something friskier, more delighted.
    — Jeremy Lybarger, Artforum, 2 June 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Affectless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/affectless. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.

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