pitiless

[ pit-i-lis, pit-ee- ]
See synonyms for: pitilesspitilesslypitilessness on Thesaurus.com

adjective
  1. feeling or showing no pity; merciless: pitiless criticism of his last novel.

Origin of pitiless

1
First recorded in 1375–1425, pitiless is from the late Middle English word piteles.See pity, -less

synonym study For pitiless

See cruel.

Other words for pitiless

Opposites for pitiless

Other words from pitiless

  • pit·i·less·ly, adverb
  • pit·i·less·ness, noun

Words Nearby pitiless

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use pitiless in a sentence

  • Whenever she was unhappy she felt herself at bay against a pitiless world, and a kind of animal secretiveness possessed her.

    Summer | Edith Wharton
  • She heard the sound of the snow crunching under a heavy step, and knew that the pitiless spy was on her track.

    An Episode Under the Terror | Honore de Balzac
  • Now an artist who feels restraint is pitiless; he stays away, or laughs it to scorn.

  • Princes, magistrates, and judges become inhuman and pitiless as soon as there is a question of the interests of religion.

    Letters To Eugenia | Paul Henri Thiry Holbach
  • He gave up praying to the pitiless, who could look down and laugh at his death-agony, and he cried upon the absent only.

British Dictionary definitions for pitiless

pitiless

/ (ˈpɪtɪlɪs) /


adjective
  1. having or showing little or no pity or mercy

Derived forms of pitiless

  • pitilessly, adverb
  • pitilessness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012