as in cruelty
disposition to willfully inflict pain and suffering on others
the gung ho heartlessness with which the secret police tortured prisoners was beyond belief
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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 heartlessness
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
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for heartlessness
Noun
-
To make the musical masterpiece of his dreams, Lestat will have to break on through his shell of witty cruelty and hope an authentic soul remains intact beneath it.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
2 June 2026
-
She was arrested at a hotel near the barn and booked at the Clark County Juvenile Hall on 12 counts of animal cruelty, including intentionally aiming or torturing a horse, as well as three counts of malicious destruction of property.—
Emily Mae Czachor,
CBS News,
1 June 2026
Noun
-
Lyrics by Ahrens and dialogue by McNally about the discrimination and brutality that Black Americans and immigrants face can seem straight out of the current moment.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
6 June 2026
-
Where the movie’s true eccentricity comes in is in its combination of breezy comedy with shocking brutality and gore, perhaps most exemplified in an oddly casual moment in a morgue where Seagal and Wayans find a clue in the form of a serial number on a dead woman’s breast implant.—
Jim Hemphill,
IndieWire,
5 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Heartlessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/heartlessness. Accessed 9 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
