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
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Recent Examples of heartlessness
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
Ginny Tapley Takemori
september 4, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for heartlessness
Noun
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Brooks explained the white and brown pup was rescued from a cruelty case in South Carolina.—
Lucy Notarantonio,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 Oct. 2025
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The cruelty, after all, is the point.—
Liam Quinn,
PEOPLE,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Her name is Christa Gail Pike, who was convicted of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer three decades ago in a case that made national headlines at the time for its brutality.—
Phillip M. Bailey,
USA Today,
3 Oct. 2025
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Safdie’s presentation of these comments foregrounds Mark’s understanding of what’s profound, and profoundly disturbing, about mixed martial arts, and perhaps all martial arts—the channelling and professionalizing of brutality.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
30 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Heartlessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/heartlessness. Accessed 7 Oct. 2025.
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