as in unloving
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Recent Examples of unaffectionate
But in conversations with his long-suffering wife Louisa and his stern mother Abigail Adams, a less noble side of the man is laid bare: absentee husband, cold, unaffectionate father and inflexible, unlikable politician.
—
Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Oct. 2020
Seward says Diana told her about her ex-husband's unaffectionate childhood with parents Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
—Simon Perry, PEOPLE.com, 21 Sep. 2020
Kyung, a Korean-American, grew up financially comfortable — surrounded by tutors, music lessons and other markers of success — but in loveless, unaffectionate surroundings.
—Joumana Khatib, New York Times, 11 May 2017
Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Oct. 2020
Seward says Diana told her about her ex-husband's unaffectionate childhood with parents Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
—Simon Perry, PEOPLE.com, 21 Sep. 2020
Kyung, a Korean-American, grew up financially comfortable — surrounded by tutors, music lessons and other markers of success — but in loveless, unaffectionate surroundings.
—Joumana Khatib, New York Times, 11 May 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unaffectionate
Adjective
-
Felix, whose childhood is revealed to have been unloving and unstable, seems to see in Jess something like instant security: not just a warm person with a home that’s much more welcoming than his chaotic squat full of eco-warriors, but an insta-family.—
Sophie Gilbert,
The Atlantic,
17 July 2025
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And at its head, always, sits Adele’s husband Caesar (Tommaso Ragno), a stern but not unloving patriarch with the sonorous voice of a man used to being obeyed, who runs the local one-room school where all of his kids, bar his youngest, sickly infant, are taught the same lessons regardless of age.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
2 Sep. 2024
Adjective
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Discerning viewers flock to the Greek filmmaker’s parables about family dynamics and power struggles to marinate in his deadpan humor, his aloof and somewhat anthropological look at human behavior, and the sight of Emma Stone inevitably doing something odd.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
23 Oct. 2025
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Kincaid has the rare ability to shift between aloof, emotionally-distant narrators and a warm autobiographical register.—
Brittany Allen,
Literary Hub,
16 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Despite state mandates to plan for 62,200 new homes by 2031, the city’s housing production has significantly fallen behind the pace needed, partly due to the unfriendly business climate that has made projects difficult to build.—
Devan Patel,
Mercury News,
22 Oct. 2025
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Outlook used to be complex and unfriendly, but Microsoft has replaced it with a far sleeker and faster version, which is surprisingly pleasant to work with.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
18 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Lady Luck and Mister Fate can be a mean couple, uncaring of you or me.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
16 Sep. 2025
-
Thompson starred in DaCosta’s debut feature Little Woods, a thoughtful, emotional thriller about two sisters just trying to survive in an expensive, uncaring world.—
Jourdain Searles,
HollywoodReporter,
11 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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True to New York grit, the owner of a corner bodega and smoke shop remained indifferent, leaning on the counter, unfazed.—
Alaa Elassar,
CNN Money,
27 Oct. 2025
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His stories, particularly the later ones, center around the idea that the Universe is a godless cosmos that is entirely indifferent to humanity.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
14 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The women are uninterested in relitigating what happened.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
22 Oct. 2025
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High school graduates uninterested in traditional campus life view SOAR™ as a flexible, lower-cost alternative.—
Jason Phillips,
Freep.com,
14 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Those hoping to snatch a home in this busy period faced limited options on the market, as the country’s developers had chronically underbuilt compared to demand in the years following the subprime mortgage crisis, leading to ruthless bidding wars and climbing home values.—
Giulia Carbonaro,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Oct. 2025
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Hedda orchestrates a ruthless game of manipulation, where lust, jealousy and betrayal collide.—
Patrick Hipes,
Deadline,
21 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The film’s only real villain is Al Pacino, doing a Colonel Sanders accent as Richard’s father M.L. Hall, whose pitiless rigidity stands in for capitalism as a whole.—
Katie Rife,
IndieWire,
2 Sep. 2025
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Each failure rekindled the gravitational pull of an existential, pitiless struggle.—
Hussein Agha,
New Yorker,
22 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unaffectionate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unaffectionate. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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