Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Keep "cruel-hearted" when the sentence already sounds natural, when a synonym would add unintended emphasis, or when readers need the most familiar wording. A synonym should clarify or sharpen the message, not simply make the sentence look more varied.
If two options seem close, choose the one that best matches the audience and purpose of the sentence.
Choose a synonym only if it keeps the core idea of "cruel-hearted" intact in the sentence you are editing.
Check whether the replacement sounds more formal, casual, emotional, technical, or forceful than the original word.
Read the full sentence after the swap. Keep the synonym only when the sentence becomes clearer or more precise.
Review note: Synonym lists are ranked with lexical data and reviewed for practical writing value. Use the comparison notes, sentence evidence, and source labels together; a high-ranking synonym can still be wrong when the audience, register, or grammar changes.
After choosing a replacement for "cruel-hearted", read the sentence once for meaning and once for rhythm. The best synonym should feel natural in the full sentence, not only accurate in a word list.
If the synonym makes the sentence slower, vaguer, or more dramatic than intended, keep "cruel-hearted" or choose a simpler alternative from the closest-match group.
7 total sentences available.
I thinke Crab my dog, be the ſowreſt natured dogge that liues: My Mother weeping: my Father wayling: my Siſter crying: our Maid howling: our Catte wringing her hands, and all our houſe in a great perplexitie, yet did not this cruell-hearted Curre ſhedde one teare: he is a ſtone, a very pibble ſtone, and has no more pitty in him then a dogge: […]
Source: wiktionary
Leave hold of my hand. I’m not crying: / And if ever I were, John, what then? / Would my tears not prove you had acted / Like the cruelest-hearted of men?
Source: wiktionary
Said he [William M. Stewart]: “John Sherman is the wickedest man ever born of woman, and Grover Cleveland is the coldest and cruelest-hearted human of this age. Sherman went to London in 1867 and deliberately sold the United States out to the Rothschilds, and has been their agent ever since. He is the brains of the Cleveland Administration, with Carlisle as the intermediary between him and the President.[…]”
Source: wiktionary
Somewhere in the heart of the great Grimpen Mire, down in the foul slime of the huge morass which had sucked him in, this cold and cruel-hearted man is for ever buried.
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 7 available sentences.
Closest matches include animal, atrocious, barbaric, barbarous, beastly.
Compare the replacement against real sentence context. This entry includes sample sentences so you can check tone, grammar, and meaning before swapping words.