ruthless
Americanadjective
adjective
Synonym Usage
See cruel.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of ruthless
Explanation
Ruthless means showing no mercy or compassion. If you really want to cut down on the clutter in your apartment, you can't be sentimental about keepsakes. You have to be ruthless and throw out everything that's not absolutely essential. If you're ruthless, you're the polar opposite of Mother Theresa. You get called heartless and cold-blooded. That's one of the reasons the word crops up so often to describe dictators and tyrants, though it can also apply to other personality types — like corporate raiders and colleagues so success-driven that they'll gladly steamroll anyone to get ahead. It finds its way into milder contexts, too: Just be ruthless and rip off the Band-Aid already!
Vocabulary lists containing ruthless
Anti-Antonyms: Words Without Opposites
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Negative Words to Describe a Person
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The Things They Carried
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Four years later, he was at his blistering best, an unstoppable blend of pace, skill and ruthless finishing heralding him the best player on the planet.
From BBC • Jun. 11, 2026
But it’s also a ruthless competitor, and its record-smashing public listing threatens to crowd out other names in the space ecosystem.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 10, 2026
According to the film’s logline, Kara’s encounter with “an unexpected and ruthless adversary” leads her to “reluctantly join forces with an unlikely companion on an epic, interstellar journey of vengeance and justice.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026
They don’t spitball—they engage in ruthless strategizing worthy of the Pentagon war room.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 2, 2026
The simple truth was that I hated him because he had a ruthless temper.
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
