unkindness

noun

1
as in unconcern

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2
as in cruelty

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Example Sentences

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.
Recent Examples of unkindness Can the bewitching kindness be disassociated from the defining unkindness at the heart of Southern history, visible in the portraits of Confederates in the lobby of the Lafayette Hotel? — Rosa Lyster, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025 What starts as a joke can slowly dull empathy, making unkindness feel routine. — Alex Shoemaker, Parents, 28 Aug. 2025 But visual effects provided the heavy lifting where the team, overseen by VFX supervisor Tom Turnbull, filled the sky with CG unkindness and mapped the chaos to characters fighting for their life. — Daron James, IndieWire, 7 Aug. 2025 That subordinate might go home and treat his spouse with unkindness. — Hasan Ali, Christian Science Monitor, 1 July 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unkindness
  1. unconcern
  2. cruelty
  3. thoughtlessness
  4. heartlessness
  5. carelessness
  6. inhumanity
  7. meanness
  8. savagery
Noun
  • The book’s occasional oases of self-examination are surrounded by dusty expanses of omission and unconcern.
    — Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 13 Dec. 2025
  • Whatever the reason, Maxwell’s strength and the shark’s apparent unconcern put one of Maxwell’s friends in danger.
    — Donald Millus, Outdoor Life, 3 July 2025
Definition of unconcern
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
  • Not malevolence but thoughtlessness was behind Eichmann’s deeds.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 Sep. 2026
  • The thoughtlessness with which this bride coerced you into subsidizing her wedding was stunning.
    — Judith Martin, Mercury News, 23 May 2026
Definition of thoughtlessness
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
  • But that drop in intensity quickly veered into carelessness, with the defence failing to assert its composure amid loose passes and hapless communication mix-ups.
    — Chris McKenna, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2026
  • Conflicts and tragedies are almost always the result of carelessness or accidents that spiral totally out of control.
    — Patrick Brzeski, HollywoodReporter, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of carelessness
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
  • Don’t give in to that meanness, and that false belief in scarcity.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Amid so much belabored meanness, meager appeals to conscience scan more like self-conscious obligation, easily subsumed by impotence.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of meanness
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

Browse Nearby Words

unkindly
unkindness
unkink
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Cite this Entry

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

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