ruthlessness

noun

Definition of ruthlessnessnext
as in mercilessness

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of ruthlessness There's a tricky tonal balance in treating the lawyers' gasp-inducing ruthlessness as entertaining and even amusing while also allowing its consequences to be clear. — Linda Holmes, NPR, 3 Oct. 2026 The army Mladic created to fight in Bosnia was a model of ruthlessness, daring and brutality in the Serb warrior tradition, once prized in the life-or-death partisan struggle against the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia in World War Two. — Ivana Sekularac, USA Today, 27 Aug. 2026 The danger occurs if that ruthlessness veers into institutional coldness. — James McNicholas, New York Times, 19 Aug. 2026 But this time, the Players entered the palace fully aware of the format’s twists and traps, armed with strategies, stronger instincts, and a ruthlessness that caught me off guard. — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 7 Aug. 2026 Russia’s war on Ukraine has become a grinding tally of raw numbers, and Kyiv is executing its strategy with the ruthlessness of a corporate efficiency expert, according to the RAND think tank. — Jason Ma, Fortune, 3 Aug. 2026 Directed by Martin Scorsese and set in the late 80s and early 90s, the movie starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, an uninhibited young stockbroker who becomes enamored by the excess and ruthlessness of Wall Street. — Keith Langston, PEOPLE, 19 July 2026 Something in the liberal heart recoils in the face of righteous ruthlessness. — David Brooks, The Atlantic, 8 July 2026 The series follows a fictionalized version of the Westies, a small Irish-American gang in the mid- to late-20th century whose ruthlessness and brutality gave them an outsized reputation. — Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 2 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ruthlessness
  1. mercilessness
  2. cruelty
  3. savagery
  4. heartlessness
  5. sadism
  6. brutality
  7. inhumanity
  8. barbarity
Noun
  • And though Din Djarian has a touch of revenge-thriller mercilessness about him, that’s more than offset by the fact that his apprentice and symbolic son is Grogu, an infant member of the same humanoid-alien species as Yoda.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 19 May 2026
Definition of mercilessness
Noun
  • Ted Gualtier, owner of Happy Tail Happy Dog, LLC, has been charged by Denver authorities with one count of cruelty to animals.
    — Brian Maass, CBS News, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Many abolitionists and Quakers – who fought to ban slavery – initially supported the colonization society’s removal efforts as a means for helping Black residents escape the cruelty of American laws, especially the Fugitive Slave Acts.
    — Karen Masterson, The Conversation, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of cruelty
Noun
  • As attendees, including Ariana DeBose and Patricia Clarkson, tucked into sweet Forelle pears and a main course of Branzino, the atmosphere was decidedly more serene than the savagery witnessed earlier on stage.
    — Christopher Barnard, Vogue, 23 Sep. 2026
  • Others are inclined to rank evils according to the amount of savagery evident in the perpetrator, not to the damage inflicted on the world.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of savagery
Noun
  • 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
  • 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
Definition of heartlessness
Noun
  • School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, might well come closest in approach to Kimberly Belflower’s urgent John Proctor Is The Villain in its insistence that homeroom sadism doesn’t just spring from hormones or reindeer game competition.
    — Greg Evans, Deadline, 28 Sep. 2026
  • Lagioia’s book goes into disturbing detail about what came next; suffice it to say that Luca’s murder tested the bounds of sadism.
    — Jay Weissberg, Variety, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of sadism
Noun
  • The case got widespread attention because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of the people involved and because a satanic symbol was carved into the victim’s body.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 28 Sep. 2026
  • That reporting revealed that the state frequently seizes money from legal settlements stemming from medical malpractice, police brutality, workplace injury and other wrongful death lawsuits.
    — Ginny Monk, Hartford Courant, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of brutality
Noun
  • The brutality and inhumanity that white Americans inflicted on free and enslaved Black people drove them out.
    — Karen Masterson, The Conversation, 5 Oct. 2026
  • This is pure hatred, and condemning this kind of inhumanity shouldn’t be hard.
    — Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 3 June 2026
Definition of inhumanity
Noun
  • What wasn’t new was the continuation of the kind of barbarity that dominated conflicts of recent memory, from Cambodia to Rwanda.
    — David Friend, Vanity Fair, 10 Sep. 2026
  • The report comes as the RSF lays siege to El Obeid, where analysts say similar barbarity is imminent.
    — Jeronimo Gonzalez, semafor.com, 9 July 2026
Definition of barbarity

Browse Nearby Words

ruthlessly
ruthlessness
ruts
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Cite this Entry

“Ruthlessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ruthlessness. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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