Meaning & use
mercilessly
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Meanings
adverbnot comparable
Without showing any pity or willingness to spare someone from pain or embarrassment.
Grammar: Goes after a verb or between auxiliary and verb: they teased him mercilessly.
Patterns
- tease someone mercilessly
- attack mercilessly
His older cousins teased him mercilessly about his haircut.
The critic mercilessly attacked the film's weak script.
The champion mercilessly crushed her opponent in straight sets.
adverbnot comparable
Continuing with harsh force and no sign of easing, used of weather or conditions.
Grammar: Often used with verbs like beat down or pound.
Patterns
- beat down mercilessly
The sun beat down mercilessly on the stranded hikers.
Rain lashed mercilessly against the windows all night.
The wind blew mercilessly across the open plain.
Common combinations
- tease mercilessly
- The team teased the rookie mercilessly after he fell off the bench.
- attack mercilessly
- Reporters attacked the mayor mercilessly during the debate.
- beat down mercilessly
- The midday sun beat down mercilessly on the market.
- exploit mercilessly
- The company mercilessly exploited its workers for years.
- hunt mercilessly
- Poachers hunted the rhinos mercilessly.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ruthlessly
- It suggests a determined lack of concern about harming others in order to reach a goal, so it often appears in business or war contexts.
- pitilessly
- It focuses on the absence of sympathy for suffering, so it is a stronger and more emotional word.
- relentlessly
- It stresses never stopping, and it need not involve cruelty at all.
- cruelly
- It means causing pain deliberately, and does not suggest the person ignored a plea for mercy.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: mercilessly or mercifully?
mercilessly vs mercifully
'Mercifully' means in a way that shows mercy, or thankfully, as in 'Mercifully, the speech was short'. It is nearly the opposite of 'mercilessly'.
Practice
The comedian ____ mocked every politician in the audience.
Choose one answer.
'Mercilessly' means without pity, which suits harsh mocking. 'Mercifully' means with mercy, so it states the reverse.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mercilessly”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.