Ruthlessness

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The property of being ruthless. uncountable, usually

    "Five minutes into the game the Black Cats were facing a mountain, partly because of West Brom's newly-found ruthlessness in front of goal but also as a result of the home side's defensive generosity."

  2. 2
    mercilessness characterized by a lack of pity wordnet
  3. 3
    feelings of extreme heartlessness wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
crueltymercilessnessmercilessnesspitilessnessanimalityatrociousness

Example

More examples

"The ruthlessness of the mission provoked a scandal in Paris."

Etymology

From ruthless + -ness.

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