thankless

[ thangk-lis ]

adjective

1. not likely to be appreciated or rewarded; unappreciated:

   a thankless job.

   Synonyms: profitless, unrewarding, unacknowledged, vain

2. not feeling or expressing gratitude or appreciation; ungrateful:

   a thankless child.

thankless

/ ˈθæŋklɪs /

adjective

1. receiving no thanks or appreciation

   a thankless job

2. ungrateful

   a thankless pupil

Derived Forms

• ˈthanklessness, noun
• ˈthanklessly, adverb

Other Words From

• thankless·ly adverb
• thankless·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of thankless¹

First recorded in 1530–40; thank + -less

Example Sentences

That quality—exercised in regular trips around TfL’s network to meet Londoners—has powered him through a career in the often thankless task of being the face of city transit systems.

From Time

The thankless, high-risk work EMTs and paramedics do is often called a “calling” because it makes no sense.

From Time

Digital ads dollars rule the decision making process, social media teams are stretched thin and minimal support often makes for a thankless job, according to social media managers.

From Digiday

Then there was Veteran’s Affairs, but that’s the dead-end of Cabinet positions — a thankless and also impossible job.

From Washington Blade

We have a thankless job that no one understands and they don’t think they should pay us very well for.

From Digiday

Law-enforcement agencies at all levels of government provide a valuable and often thankless public service in their communities.

From The Daily Beast

But it serves no one to perpetuate the idea that parenting is supposed to be an agonizing and thankless slog.

From The Daily Beast

Hosting the show really is the most thankless—and one of the most trying—jobs in showbiz, but DeGeneres did a helluva job.

From The Daily Beast

Ryan's job is thankless, although he is thanked a lot by others.

From The Daily Beast

Murmelstein was stuck with a thankless and impossible job, caught between the hammer and the anvil, as he tells us.

From The Daily Beast

The imperial army had to be disbanded—a most unpopular and thankless task, requiring both tact and firmness.

From Project Gutenberg

What could she be about when, with London a thankless void, she was of course not paying visits?

From Project Gutenberg

His heart swells, and he longs to embrace the thankless Church to which he writes.

From Project Gutenberg

But he thought of this taciturn savage, how he had capped thankless service with rarest sacrifice.

From Project Gutenberg

But, if there is a thankless task, it is that of examining the erect image in children from two to three years of age.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• fruitless
• futile
• unpleasant