What does "ruthfully" mean?

In a manner that is ruthful:; Sorrowfully, ruefully.

What is a synonym for "ruthfully"?

Common synonyms include: ruefully.

adv

adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Adverb

1
In a manner that is ruthful:; Sorrowfully, ruefully.
"cæsar [ruthfully] Rufio, Rufio: my men at the barricade are between the sea party and the shore party. I have murdered them."
2
In a manner that is ruthful:; In a manner that causes pity; piteously.
"1997, Neil W. Hamilton (quoting Owen Lattimore), Zealotry and Academic Freedom, page 313, This commonplace observation becomes very poignant when you are the man accused, and a man like McCarthy ruthfully exploits his advantage by making the accusations so sensational that the revelation of the truth seems drab and dull by comparison."
3
In a manner that is ruthful:; Compassionately; mercifully.
"Lee's wait was ruthfully short, although he might have traded the first news that reached him for a return to uncertainty."

"cæsar [ruthfully] Rufio, Rufio: my men at the barricade are between the sea party and the shore party. I have murdered them."

From Middle English rewthfully, equivalent to ruthful + -ly.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.