merciless

English

Etymology

From Middle English merciles, mercyles, equivalent to mercy +‎ -less.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɜːsɪləs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɝsɪləs/

Adjective

merciless (comparative more merciless, superlative most merciless)

1. Showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless.
   • 1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System:

     The sun is merciless today, so please take care of yourself.

   • 2024 November 6, David Culver, Abel Alvarado, Evelio Contreras and Rachel Clarke, “Exclusive: Locking eyes with mass murderers in El Salvador”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     But the ruthless cleaning up of those streets and merciless treatment of gang members have triggered outrage and concern among human rights organizations, which have condemned Cecot as inhumane and unacceptable.

Synonyms

• unmerciful
• cruel
• pitiless
• ruthless

Derived terms

• mercilessly
• mercilessness

Translations

showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless

• Bulgarian: безмилостен (bg) (bezmilosten)
• Catalan: despietat (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 殘忍 / 残忍 (zh) (cánrěn), 無情 / 无情 (zh) (wúqíng)

• Czech: nemilosrdný (cs) m
• Danish: nådesløs
• Dutch: genadeloos (nl)
• Finnish: armoton (fi), säälimätön (fi)
• French: impitoyable (fr)
• German: gnadenlos (de)
• Greek: αλύπητος (el) (alýpitos)

  Ancient: ἀνελεήμων (aneleḗmōn), ἄσπλαγχνος (ásplankhnos)

• Hindi: निर्दय (hi) (nirday), निष्ठुर (hi) (niṣṭhur)
• Hungarian: kegyetlen (hu), könyörtelen (hu)
• Indonesian: sadis (id)
• Irish: éadrócaireach, neamhthrócaireach
• Italian: spietato (it), crudele (it)
• Japanese: 無慈悲 (ja) (mujihi), 容赦ない (yōsha nai)
• Korean: 무자비하다 (mujabihada)
• Latin: immisericors
• Lithuanian: negailestingas
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: nådeløs

  Nynorsk: nådelaus

• Ottoman Turkish: دینسز (dinsiz)
• Polish: bezlitosny (pl) m, niemiłosierny (pl) m, bezpardonowy (pl), bezwzględny (pl)
• Portuguese: impiedoso, imisericordioso m
• Russian: беспоща́дный (ru) (bespoščádnyj), безжа́лостный (ru) (bezžálostnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: mì-chneasta
• Spanish: despiadado (es), inmisericorde (es)
• Swedish: skoningslös (sv), obarmhärtig (sv)
• Tagalog: walang awa
• Turkish: acımasız (tr)
• Ukrainian: безжалісний (uk) (bezžalisnyj), безжальний (uk) (bezžalʹnyj), безпощадний (uk) (bezpoščadnyj), немилосе́рдний (nemylosérdnyj)

Anagrams

• crimeless