Definition of affectlessnext
1
2

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
  • The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
    — Lexy Perez, HollywoodReporter, 15 Oct. 2026
  • Facinelli plays the Boss, a ruthless figure whose cash ends up in the pool hustler’s hands, and intends to get it back, one way or another.
    — Zac Ntim, Deadline, 14 Oct. 2026
Adjective
  • Terrence split almost immediately, and Julianne deposited her small son on the Missouri farm of her Uncle Claude, a stoic, kindly old man.
    — Hadley Hall Meares, Vanity Fair, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Aaron is maybe a little more stoic than his character is written, which then allowed Gabe [to have] this kinetic, golden retriever energy.
    — Ellise Shafer, Variety, 15 Oct. 2026
Adjective
  • The book’s humor is sharp and merciless, akin to that of a standup comedy show, and yet the things described are far from funny.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 14 Oct. 2026
  • 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
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

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Affectless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/affectless. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster