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View synonyms for ruthless

ruthless

[ rooth-lis ]

adjective

  1. without pity or compassion; cruel; merciless:

    a ruthless tyrant.

    Synonyms: relentless, adamant, unrelenting



ruthless

/ ˈruːθlɪs /

adjective

  1. feeling or showing no mercy; hardhearted
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • ˈruthlessness, noun
  • ˈruthlessly, adverb
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Other Words From

  • ruthless·ly adverb
  • ruthless·ness noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of ruthless1

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English; ruth + -less
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Synonym Study

See cruel.
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Example Sentences

Simon Russell Beale is completely engaging as the gleeful and ruthless Beria, head of the secret police, and Jeffrey Tambor and Michael Palin are delightful as clueless members of the Council of Ministers with its ineffectual but deadly bureaucracy.

We are each members of chapters of national organizations dedicated to fighting the ruthless capitalist drive to rob people and planet of the resources we need to live better, healthier and happier.

Already so emblematic of the ruthless dynamics that have transformed the American economy, Kenosha now finds itself at the center of the racial and social tensions that have dominated the national conversation in 2020.

From Fortune

While an extreme example, the recent Kraft-Heinz review is emblematic of how ruthless advertisers are prepared to be in pursuit of cost efficiencies needed to maintain margins on media.

From Digiday

After the war, Kuwait demanded that Saddam Hussein — known as a ruthless tyrant who had gassed his own people — pay back his war debt.

From Ozy

His stories were constructed with ruthless narrative efficiency.

To be fair, he might not have known that Pinochet was a ruthless dictator.

Her remarks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have drawn some ruthless criticism from Jews around the world.

So it continues to make local authorities and their ruthless cronies uneasy.

I was not prepared for the staggered, ruthless falling apart of one of the people I love most in the world.

This demand was made with scornful seriousness; with a ruthless application to the feelings of a son.

In the procession I should feel the crushing feet, the clashing discords, the ruthless hands and stifling breath.

This ruthless destruction of the forest brings down upon Calendau the anger of his lady; he has dishonored the noble mountain.

There was not one nook or cranny into which that ruthless self-knowledge could not throw its cruel glare.

The little camp had ceased to exist; the great, ruthless, calm forest had reclaimed its own.

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