as in oppressiveness
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for hardhandedness
Noun
-
Trying to find charm and not having malevolence as the intention, not trying to be evil, let the brilliant writing do that.—
David Canfield,
HollywoodReporter,
13 May 2026 -
Reactions from tour loyalists at the time ranged from indifference to malevolence.—
Brendan Quinn,
New York Times,
11 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
There is no lag to anticipate and no visual harshness pulling attention away from the music.—
William Jones,
USA Today,
3 June 2026
-
The texture is firm and mouth-filling, with the higher alcohol providing structure without harshness.—
Joseph V Micallef,
Forbes.com,
30 May 2026
Noun
-
After 1965, when African Americans’ right to vote was constitutionally recognized, the meanness continued.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
29 May 2026
-
The collective community is more important than the individual, and care trumps meanness.—
Sarah Wang,
PEOPLE,
16 May 2026
Noun
-
His Cyrano is the play’s hero, even if the character’s psychological limitations are as much a factor in the story as the machinations of De Guiche, whose malignity is sent up in Nathanson’s flamboyantly comic turn.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Sep. 2024
-
For a decade, the central drama of Trumpism has concerned the Republican élites who continued to support him—the story has been about their malignity, or opportunism, or willful moral blindness.—
Benjamin Wallace-Wells,
The New Yorker,
16 Sep. 2023
Noun
-
Trump’s narcissistic obsession with the place, together with the miasmic hatefulness of his words and actions, has caused artists to flee en masse.—
Alex Ross,
New Yorker,
19 Mar. 2026
-
Comment sections have always attracted hatefulness and resentment; these ones just happen to encourage it more explicitly.—
Rebecca Jennings,
Vulture,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The guy was a sleaze, but there’s a pretty big gap between sleaziness and murderousness.—
Sophie Brookover,
Vulture,
12 Dec. 2025
Noun
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The findings can’t be extrapolated to the real world — the scenarios were extreme, with the regimes often facing first strikes or annihilation — but revealed AIs’ skill at strategic reasoning, as well as a certain bloodthirstiness.—
Tom Chivers,
semafor.com,
4 Mar. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Hardhandedness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hardhandedness. Accessed 6 Jun. 2026.
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