as in ruthless
not guided by or showing a concern for what is right
cutthroat business practices intended to drive competitors out of business
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in assassin
a person who kills another person
while traveling the ancient Silk Road, traders were constant prey to cutthroats and thieves
Synonyms & Similar Words
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 cutthroat
Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 22 May 2026
But for the owners of the Atlantic Hockey Federation—the youth-hockey association that pulls together elite teams from Connecticut and many other states, as far west as Arizona—kids’ sports is a cutthroat business, a way to make a handful of people very rich.
—Chris Murphy, The Atlantic, 20 May 2026
Brett Milano, Boston Herald, 10 Apr. 2026
Which makes streamers going all-in on profits right now look like a cutthroat but ultimately shrewd move.
—Jennifer Silverman, Rolling Stone, 7 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for cutthroat
Adjective
Empowering field centers A major theme in the letter is giving field centers more opportunities to focus on their core capabilities instead of competing in a cutthroat environment for resources.
—Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 22 May 2026
But for the owners of the Atlantic Hockey Federation—the youth-hockey association that pulls together elite teams from Connecticut and many other states, as far west as Arizona—kids’ sports is a cutthroat business, a way to make a handful of people very rich.
—Chris Murphy, The Atlantic, 20 May 2026
Noun
There’s a fellow from Rolling Stone who apologized to me a couple years ago, he was told to be as cutthroat as possible.
—Brett Milano, Boston Herald, 10 Apr. 2026
Which makes streamers going all-in on profits right now look like a cutthroat but ultimately shrewd move.
—Jennifer Silverman, Rolling Stone, 7 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for cutthroat
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cutthroat
Adjective
-
The role of Chris Partlow, Marlo Stanfield's top lieutenant and ruthless hitman, was the first screen credit for Gbenga Akinnagbe.—
Derek Lawrence,
Entertainment Weekly,
2 June 2026
-
Lexi is adrift in the ruthless world of Hollywood.—
CT Jones,
Rolling Stone,
2 June 2026
Noun
-
The bombshells, Gabriel from Brazil and Kayda from New Hampshire, arrive like sexy assassins and silently start making out with everyone standing on a red dot.—
Kathleen Walsh,
Vulture,
3 June 2026
-
His legacy as one of rap’s great subliminal assassins is one of the most impressive parts of his career.—
Jayson Buford,
Rolling Stone,
3 June 2026
Adjective
-
Similarly, having a conscience means feeling sadness or moral repulsion at the idea of taking a certain action, and those emotions entail a physiological response, a remnant of having once felt sick with guilt after committing an immoral act.—
Ted Chiang,
The Atlantic,
3 June 2026
-
Ryan Josue Rojas, 20, of Herriman, Utah, was arraigned Sunday on one count of accosting a minor for immoral purposes, Michigan State Police said.—
Joseph Buczek,
CBS News,
1 June 2026
Noun
-
An erudite peek into the brains of both murderers and those who study them, Crazy, Not Insane takes you behind the true crime and into the minds of true criminals.—
James Mercadante,
Entertainment Weekly,
4 June 2026
-
Rhys is joined by a murderer’s row of character actors, including Stephen Root, Kate O’Flynn, Dale Dickey, Kevin Carroll, Jeff Hiller, Neil Casey, and more.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
3 June 2026
Adjective
-
Fujimori is linked to the authoritarian and corrupt legacy of the government of her late father, Alberto Fujimori, in the 1990s.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
7 June 2026
-
Of course, all of this convenient acquiescence will sound familiar in the United States, where our own Congress and Department of Justice have been nothing if not servile to a brazenly corrupt executive.—
Daniel Alarcón,
New Yorker,
4 June 2026
Noun
-
Decades after Jones’ killing, investigators sent the evidence to a laboratory for processing and established a DNA profile of the killer.—
Saleen Martin,
USA Today,
5 June 2026
-
But a scattering of anglers is convinced that flavoring bait with tobacco is a sure-enough killer.—
Byron W. Dalrymple,
Outdoor Life,
4 June 2026
Adjective
-
Some unscrupulous mortgage loan originator might want to push the borrower toward FHA financing.—
Jeff Lazerson,
Oc Register,
28 May 2026
-
Connecticut gets a bad reputation This leads to the 1833 story of the unscrupulous Connecticut peddlers.—
Ava Berger,
NPR,
28 May 2026
Adjective
-
Practically all the public’s attention has been on the president and his oddball or vengeful or unprincipled actions.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
12 Apr. 2026
-
How pathetically far this blithering, unprincipled piece of trash has gone to endanger other lives, to expressly distract and deflect from his own wicked deeds, and to further benefit his grifting family’s larcenously enlarged bounties.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
8 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cutthroat.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cutthroat. Accessed 9 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
