as in ruthlessness
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for mercilessness
Noun
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Delcy, a lifelong ideologue, earned a reputation for ruthlessness and competency, running Maduro’s foreign ministry and later managing both the economy and the country’s oil industry.—
Jonathan Blitzer,
New Yorker,
5 Jan. 2026 -
Cheery and resolute Vault 33 dweller Lucy (Ella Purnell) left her underground home to find her abducted father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), and in doing so realized the difficulty of living by the golden rule in a world that’s defined by ruthlessness and want.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
16 Dec. 2025
Noun
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The American people must reject this cruelty and extremism.—
Ali Bauman,
CBS News,
8 Jan. 2026
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Does their lack of kindness grant you permission to respond with equal insensitivity or even cruelty?—
Michael Isaacson,
Sun Sentinel,
6 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Its savagery was all the more disturbing knowing what a compassionate, effective man Rob Reiner was in life and work.—
Matt Zoller Seitz,
Vulture,
16 Dec. 2025
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Then came the October 7, 2023, savagery by Hamas that took the lives of more than 1,200 innocent Jews—40 years after the attack on America’s troops in Beirut.—
Lee Habeeb,
MSNBC Newsweek,
3 Dec. 2025
Noun
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In the world of The Bone Temple, the infected are no longer the greatest threat to survival; the inhumanity of the survivors can be stranger and more terrifying.—
Robert Lang,
Deadline,
27 Dec. 2025
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In the world of The Bone Temple, the infected are no longer the greatest threat to survival - the inhumanity of the survivors can be stranger and more terrifying.—
Griff Griffin,
MSNBC Newsweek,
6 Dec. 2025
Noun
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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
Noun
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Pritam’s Partition writings offer incisive critiques of the barbarity that became life with borders but also contest notions of belonging from a feminist perspective.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
30 Oct. 2025
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Amid all the barbarity for barbarity’s sake, Jonsson carries the film with a deep well of unspoken regret.—
Christian Zilko,
IndieWire,
12 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The series begins before Gein has ever killed, in 1945, as dawning awareness of death camps in Europe fills the air with sadism and conspiracy thinking.—
Daniel D'Addario,
Variety,
30 Sep. 2025
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The invading parasite is a culture of hate and paranoia and sadism — mass hysteria as sanctioned by the government that is supposed to protect you.—
Rachel Raposas,
PEOPLE,
29 Sep. 2025
Noun
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For some residents, Good’s killing reopened deep wounds in a city still reckoning with the police murder of George Floyd, which occurred just blocks away in May 2020 and sparked nationwide protests against police brutality.—
Nicole Acevedo,
NBC news,
10 Jan. 2026
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Captured on video, the incident would bring national tensions over police brutality to a head, igniting months of demonstrations around the country.—
Marc Ramirez,
USA Today,
10 Jan. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Mercilessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mercilessness. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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