Meaning & use
ruthless
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Meanings
adjectivecomparabledisapproving
Willing to hurt or harm others without any pity in order to get what you want.
Grammar: Can follow a linking verb or come before a noun: a ruthless boss, he was ruthless.
Patterns
- ruthless in something
- ruthless with someone
- be ruthless about doing something
The ruthless dictator crushed every protest.
She was ruthless in cutting jobs to save the company.
A ruthless rival spread lies to win the contract.
adjectivecomparableapproving
Extremely strict and determined in a way that ignores feelings, sometimes admired as efficient.
Grammar: Often used with efficiency or focus: ruthless efficiency.
Patterns
- ruthless efficiency
- ruthlessly focused on something
The coach demanded ruthless focus from every player.
He edited the draft with ruthless efficiency, deleting half of it.
Word forms
| comparative | more ruthless |
|---|---|
| superlative | most ruthless |
Common combinations
- ruthless dictator
- The ruthless dictator silenced every critic.
- ruthless efficiency
- The team cleared the backlog with ruthless efficiency.
- ruthless ambition
- Her ruthless ambition took her to the top by thirty.
- ruthless competition
- Small shops face ruthless competition from online sellers.
- ruthless streak
- Beneath his charm lay a ruthless streak.
Synonyms and how they differ
- merciless
- Merciless stresses refusing to spare someone who is weak or beaten, while ruthless focuses on pursuing a goal without caring.
- cruel
- Cruel means enjoying or causing suffering, whereas a ruthless person may simply not care about it.
- heartless
- Heartless stresses a lack of kindness or feeling, with no sense of a goal being pursued.
- relentless
- Relentless means never stopping, and carries no suggestion that anyone is harmed.
Opposites
Word family
- ruthlessly adverb
- in a pitiless way
- ruthlessness noun
- the quality of having no pity
- ruth noun
- an old literary word for pity or sorrow
Commonly confused: ruthless or relentless?
ruthless vs relentless
Relentless describes something that never lets up, like rain or pressure. Ruthless describes someone with no mercy.
Practice
Which word best fits? The manager was so ____ that he fired loyal workers without a second thought.
Choose one answer.
Ruthless means showing no pity, which fits firing loyal workers without thought. Generous and sympathetic describe the opposite attitude.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ruthless”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.