cold-bloodedness

noun

as in cruelty

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for cold-bloodedness
  1. cruelty
  2. heartlessness
  3. savagery
  4. callousness
  5. inhumanity
  6. barbarity
  7. ruthlessness
  8. brutishness
Noun
  • Luhansk, this terra incognita of the independent Ukraine, is described in almost carnivalesque terms, but this is a carnival infused with absurdity and even cruelty.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Artistaya Arriyawongsa directed and co-wrote the film, which uses the supernatural to probe online cruelty and the public shaming it fuels.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of cruelty
Noun
  • These young graduates start out naive about the heartlessness of the corporate world and harbor illusory hopes for success in unforgiving professions.
    — George Packer, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2026
  • The lives of the two children in the story, aged fourteen and four, are portrayed as being as fleeting as the fireflies, and the story is an unsentimental and unflinching account with moments of both tenderness and heartlessness.
    — Ginny Tapley Takemori September 4, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025
Definition of heartlessness
Noun
  • After the Nuremberg tribunal, the top Nazi leadership were rightly hanged for their crimes, yet even these were not open for public viewing, because that is savagery.
    — New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 14 Oct. 2026
  • As attendees, including Ariana DeBose and Patricia Clarkson, tucked into sweet Forelle pears and a main course of Branzino, the atmosphere was decidedly more serene than the savagery witnessed earlier on stage.
    — Christopher Barnard, Vogue, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of savagery
Noun
  • Vicki brushes it off, and even Shannon can’t defend her friend’s callousness.
    — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2026
  • Swift was born into the Anglo-Irish Protestant elite, and the text satires both the callousness of his class and a then-ascendant approach to morality and politics that held that all aspects of life could be cooked down to a pure numerical value.
    — Dónal Gill, The Dial, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of callousness
Noun
  • The brutality and inhumanity that white Americans inflicted on free and enslaved Black people drove them out.
    — Karen Masterson, The Conversation, 5 Oct. 2026
  • This is pure hatred, and condemning this kind of inhumanity shouldn’t be hard.
    — Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 3 June 2026
Definition of inhumanity
Noun
  • What wasn’t new was the continuation of the kind of barbarity that dominated conflicts of recent memory, from Cambodia to Rwanda.
    — David Friend, Vanity Fair, 10 Sep. 2026
  • The report comes as the RSF lays siege to El Obeid, where analysts say similar barbarity is imminent.
    — Jeronimo Gonzalez, semafor.com, 9 July 2026
Definition of barbarity
Noun
  • Chelsea have attempted 11 shots inside the first seven minutes of games, more than any other side, but their fast starts have also been underpinned by a clinical ruthlessness in front of goal.
    — Conor O'Neill, New York Times, 15 Oct. 2026
  • There's a tricky tonal balance in treating the lawyers' gasp-inducing ruthlessness as entertaining and even amusing while also allowing its consequences to be clear.
    — Linda Holmes, NPR, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of ruthlessness
Noun
  • Generations of agents, therefore, have had to walk a line between bookishness and brutishness.
    — Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
  • But the brutishness has merely relocated, to places far more dangerous.
    — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2026
Definition of brutishness
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

cold-bloodedly
cold-bloodedness
cold call
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Cite this Entry

“Cold-bloodedness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cold-bloodedness. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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