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Meaning & use

hard-hearted

adjective·Everydaydisapproving

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UK/ˌhɑːd ˈhɑːtɪd/
US/ˌhɑːrd ˈhɑːrtɪd/
Usage warning: this word is disapproving. It shows a negative opinion, so take care with who and what you use it about.

Meaning

  1. adjectivecomparabledisapproving

    Showing no sympathy or kindness toward other people's suffering or problems.

    Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: a hard-hearted landlord, he was hard-hearted.

    Patterns

    • be hard-hearted about something
    • a hard-hearted person

    Only a hard-hearted person could ignore a crying child.

    The hard-hearted landlord refused to wait even one more day for the rent.

    She felt hard-hearted for saying no, but she could not afford to help.

Word forms

comparativemore hard-hearted
superlativemost hard-hearted

Common combinations

a hard-hearted person
He is not a hard-hearted person, just very busy.
hard-hearted landlord
The story features a hard-hearted landlord who evicts a family.
seem hard-hearted
I did not want to seem hard-hearted, so I gave him some money.
hard-hearted enough to
Who would be hard-hearted enough to leave a dog out in the cold?
cold and hard-hearted
The villain is cold and hard-hearted.

Synonyms and how they differ

heartless
Heartless is nearly the same but suggests a total lack of feeling, while hard-hearted suggests a tough refusal to be moved.
unsympathetic
Unsympathetic is milder and can describe someone who simply does not show concern in a given moment.
callous
Callous is more formal and stresses that someone has become used to others' pain and does not care.
ruthless
Ruthless stresses a willingness to harm others to reach a goal, not just a lack of sympathy.

Opposites

kind-heartedsoft-heartedcompassionate

Word family

hard-heartedness noun
The quality of lacking sympathy.
hard-heartedly adverb
In a way that shows no sympathy.
heart noun
The center of feeling and kindness.
soft-hearted adjective
Easily moved by others' troubles.

Commonly confused: hard-hearted or hard-headed?

hard-hearted vs hard-headed

Hard-headed means practical and unsentimental, which is not always negative, while hard-hearted means lacking kindness.

Practice

The landlord was so ____ that he threw the family out in the middle of winter.

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