callousness
Lack of feeling
Callousness is emotional hardness—an indifference to others' suffering or feelings.
Where calluses protect skin through thickening, callousness protects the self through emotional numbing: The doctor's callousness shocked the grieving family.
It implies not just lack of sympathy but a hardened quality, as if sensitivity has been worn away through repeated exposure or deliberate suppression.
Without compassion or emotion
- heartlessLacking pity or mercy
- stonyheartedLacking sympathy or pity
- hardheartedLacking sympathy or pity
- cold-heartedDevoid of empathy
soulless · unsympathetic · uncompassionate · unmoved · unemotional · emotionless · remorseless · unempathetic
Absence of feeling
- disregardWillful lack of attention
- unconcernAbsence of worry
- detachmentSeparation or emotional uninvolvement
- aloofnessEmotional unavailability, standoffishness
nonchalance · dispassion · insouciance · disinterest · dismissiveness · neglect · obliviousness · heedlessness
Savage, merciless behavior
- inhumanityExtreme cruelty toward others
- savageryExtreme, violent cruelty
- barbaritySavage or cruel behavior
- malevolenceActive ill will
viciousness · mercilessness · pitilessness · ruthlessness · sadism · malice · spitefulness · ferocity
Intensity of sternness
- sternnessUncompromising strictness of manner
- roughnessUneven surface quality
- bluntnessFrank, unvarnished manner
- brusquenessAbrupt, rude directness
curtness · gruffness · coarseness · insensitivity · tactlessness · thoughtlessness · inconsideration · unkindness
unfeeling
Without compassion or emotion
- heartlessLacking pity or mercy
- stonyheartedLacking sympathy or pity
- hardheartedLacking sympathy or pity
cold-hearted · soulless · unsympathetic · uncompassionate · unmoved · unemotional · emotionless · remorseless · unempathetic · thick-skinned
apathy
Absence of feeling
- disregardWillful lack of attention
- unconcernAbsence of worry
- detachmentSeparation or emotional uninvolvement
aloofness · nonchalance · dispassion · insouciance · disinterest · dismissiveness · neglect · obliviousness · heedlessness · disengagement
brutality
Savage, merciless behavior
- inhumanityExtreme cruelty toward others
- savageryExtreme, violent cruelty
- barbaritySavage or cruel behavior
malevolence · viciousness · mercilessness · pitilessness · ruthlessness · sadism · malice · spitefulness · ferocity · atrocity
severity
Intensity of sternness
- sternnessUncompromising strictness of manner
- roughnessUneven surface quality
- bluntnessFrank, unvarnished manner
brusqueness · curtness · gruffness · coarseness · insensitivity · tactlessness · thoughtlessness · inconsideration · unkindness · meanness
- bad traitsmeanness, rudeness, cruelty, dishonesty, hostility
- insensitivitycold-heartedness, hard-heartedness, heartlessness, inconsideration, indifference
- traitshonesty, ambitious, brave, calm, kindness
- vicesgreed, envy, lust, gluttony, vanity
- harshnessseverity, roughness, sternness, sharpness, hardness
- behavior problemsaggression, defiance, tantrums, bullying, hitting
callousnesscompassion
Concern for others' distress
sympathy · empathy · tenderness · sensitivity · soft-heartedness
callousnesskindness
Considerate, caring disposition
compassion · charity · benevolence · humaneness · humanity
callous, callus, calluses, callously, callused, calloused, uncalloused