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coldheartedness

noun

as in heartlessness

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for coldheartedness
  1. heartlessness
  2. callousness
  3. indifference
  4. hard-heartedness
  5. cruelty
Noun
  • These young graduates start out naive about the heartlessness of the corporate world and harbor illusory hopes for success in unforgiving professions.
    — George Packer, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2026
  • The lives of the two children in the story, aged fourteen and four, are portrayed as being as fleeting as the fireflies, and the story is an unsentimental and unflinching account with moments of both tenderness and heartlessness.
    — Ginny Tapley Takemori September 4, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025
Definition of heartlessness
Noun
  • Vicki brushes it off, and even Shannon can’t defend her friend’s callousness.
    — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2026
  • Swift was born into the Anglo-Irish Protestant elite, and the text satires both the callousness of his class and a then-ascendant approach to morality and politics that held that all aspects of life could be cooked down to a pure numerical value.
    — Dónal Gill, The Dial, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of callousness
Noun
  • Only Smith reached base, on a walk, and advanced to third on defensive indifference.
    — Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Heart of the Beast takes that to its end point by stripping away not just other genders but other people, leaving just James, his furry companion, and the beautiful indifference of nature.
    — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of indifference
Noun
  • Tarr's reputation for films tinged with misery and hard-heartedness, distinguished by black-and-white cinematography and unusually long sequences, only grew throughout the 1990s and 2000s, particularly after his 1994 film Sátántangó.
    — Alina Edwards, NPR, 6 Jan. 2026
Definition of hard-heartedness
Noun
  • The beauty of the landscape will sit alongside the cruelty unfolding among the characters.
    — Callum McLennan, Variety, 23 Sep. 2026
  • Florida law has specific statutory provisions that address feral and free-ranging cats, which are considered domestic animals under state law that are protected by the animal cruelty statutes.
    — Michael L. Hyman, Miami Herald, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of cruelty
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.

Browse Nearby Words

coldhearted
coldheartedness
coldish
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Cite this Entry

“Coldheartedness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coldheartedness. Accessed 27 Sep. 2026.

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