heartless
Americanadjective
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unfeeling; unkind; unsympathetic; harsh; cruel.
heartless words; a heartless ruler.
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Archaic. lacking courage or enthusiasm; spiritless; disheartened.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- heartlessly adverb
- heartlessness noun
Etymology
Origin of heartless
1300–50; Middle English herteles, Old English heortlēas. See heart, -less
Explanation
Someone who's heartless is inconsiderate and insensitive to other people's feelings. It would be heartless to smash a little kid's carefully carved Jack o' lantern. A heartless person might respond glibly to a friend's sad story about his sick grandmother, or push a hungry cat out the door on a rainy night. If you're heartless, you're cold and uncaring. Another, older meaning of this adjective is "lacking courage," from the Old English heortleas, "dispirited or dejected." The modern meaning was coined by poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816.
Vocabulary lists containing heartless
"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 1
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"The Clever Old Woman" and "Argument"
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The Flicker
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In a victim impact statement submitted to the court, Perry’s stepmother, Debbie Perry, wrote: “Please give this heartless woman the maximum prison sentence so she won’t be able to hurt other families like ours.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
She added: "Please give this heartless woman the maximum prison sentence so she won't be able to hurt other families like ours."
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026
“It’s just a pretty heartless place and always has been,” says Ebert.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 22, 2026
“Ben & Jerry’s will become just another brand like any other soulless, heartless, spiritless brand out there — that’s my concern,” Cohen told the Associated Press.
From Salon • Sep. 20, 2025
It was the iced-over, heartless feeling that enables some people to do terrible things for what they believe are perfectly justifiable reasons.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
