as in ruthlessness
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mercilessness
Noun
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The efficiency extends beyond open play and there is a ruthlessness to how English teams manage matches.—
Sukhman Singh,
New York Times,
17 Mar. 2026 -
The ruthlessness of the producers cutting folk off mid-speech or retracting the microphone and upping the music volume was belittling to those on stage.—
Baz Bamigboye,
Deadline,
16 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Just weeks ago, a jury found Colt's father, Colin, guilty of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and cruelty to children.—
CBS News Atlanta Digital Staff,
CBS News,
16 Mar. 2026
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For Barbara, impending death does not inspire a moral awakening, and Rosenberg never gives the reader an origin story that would excuse her cruelty.—
Isle McElroy,
The Atlantic,
16 Mar. 2026
Noun
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After the war, in sober reflection, the United States helped lead a global effort to try to tame the savagery of conflict and, in particular, to shield civilians.—
Nicholas D. Kristof,
Mercury News,
18 Mar. 2026
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Its deep psychological and philosophical meditations on civilization and savagery, religion and spirituality, man’s relationship with himself and others, and his connection with the land are dense at times but always rewarding.—
The Know,
Denver Post,
15 Mar. 2026
Noun
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But the level of violence, the level of inhumanity, the level of atrocity in Iran, is what moves me.—
Lily Moayeri,
Rolling Stone,
3 Mar. 2026
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His cinema verite style powerfully exposed the horrific inhumanity of public institutions (like hospitals, schools and housing projects) supposedly created to help people.—
Duane Byrge,
HollywoodReporter,
16 Feb. 2026
Noun
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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
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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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Thousands of children have been terrorized, detained, and many have been deported because of ICE’s unchecked barbarity.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
26 Jan. 2026
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Cathy escapes, the Jimmies' numbers are diminished, and the stomach-churning barbarity finally comes to an end.—
Megan McCluskey,
Time,
16 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Over Your Dead Body is not for the faint of heart, but give or take a rape threat that crosses the line into smug sadism without quite seeming to realize it, the violence lands as more comically cartoonish than horrific.—
Angie Han,
HollywoodReporter,
15 Mar. 2026
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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
Noun
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The killing in the woods of Knoxville demonstrated a brutality and callousness rarely seen in a woman, let alone one so young.—
Amanda Lee Myers,
USA Today,
21 Mar. 2026
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But the increasing brutality of the regime was like nothing these people had ever experienced.—
Cora Engelbrecht,
New Yorker,
20 Mar. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Mercilessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mercilessness. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026.
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