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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Newspaper headlines screamed that Welch had called out McCarthy for his cruelty, his ruthlessness and his lies.—
Kristen Monroe,
Chicago Tribune,
17 Feb. 2026
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Call it the cruelty of small differences.—
Catherine Bray,
Variety,
17 Feb. 2026
Noun
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The sly blend of beauty and brutality is also apparent in the film’s sound design.—
Patrick Brzeski,
HollywoodReporter,
14 Feb. 2026
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The protagonist, Frannie’s, story begins in a plantation in Jamaica, the brutality of which is chillingly evoked, but by moving much of the novel’s action to London, Sara Collins helps show just how tightly interwoven Black Caribbean history is with the history of the UK.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Heartlessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/heartlessness. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.
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