heartlessness
Absence of compassion
Heartlessness is the quality of being cruel, unfeeling, or indifferent to others' suffering.
Where *cruelty* suggests active harm, heartlessness emphasizes absence—a void where compassion should be: The heartlessness of the policy left families homeless.
Someone acting with heartlessness shows no mercy or emotional response to distress.
Savage, merciless behavior
- inhumanityExtreme cruelty toward others
- callousnessCruel emotional indifference
- savageryExtreme, violent cruelty
- viciousnessExtreme cruelty or spite
malevolence · sadism · barbarism · mercilessness · pitilessness · cold-bloodedness · malice · fiendishness
Cruel emotional indifference
- hard-heartednessLack of sympathy
- cold-heartednessUnfeeling, pitiless nature
- stoninessUnyielding emotional hardness
- numbnessLoss of sensation
unfeelingness · soullessness · inhumaneness · iciness · frigidity · steeliness · flintiness · imperviousness
Lack of compassion or mercy
- remorselessnessState of feeling no regret
- unconscionabilityDoctrine voiding exploitative agreements
- shamelessnessAbsence of moral embarrassment
- unscrupulousnessLack of ethical restraint
amorality · immorality · corruption · baseness · villainy · treachery · betrayal · deceit
Absence of feeling
- unconcernAbsence of worry
- disregardWillful lack of attention
- neglectFailure to provide care
- coldnessLow temperature state
detachment · insensitivity · dismissiveness · disinterest · nonchalance · aloofness · impassivity · unresponsiveness
brutality
Savage, merciless behavior
- inhumanityExtreme cruelty toward others
- callousnessCruel emotional indifference
- savageryExtreme, violent cruelty
viciousness · malevolence · sadism · barbarism · mercilessness · pitilessness · cold-bloodedness · malice · fiendishness · monstrousness
callousness
Cruel emotional indifference
- hard-heartednessLack of sympathy
- cold-heartednessUnfeeling, pitiless nature
- stoninessUnyielding emotional hardness
numbness · unfeelingness · soullessness · inhumaneness · iciness · frigidity · steeliness · flintiness · imperviousness · hardness
ruthlessness
Lack of compassion or mercy
- remorselessnessState of feeling no regret
- unconscionabilityDoctrine voiding exploitative agreements
- shamelessnessAbsence of moral embarrassment
unscrupulousness · amorality · immorality · corruption · baseness · villainy · treachery · betrayal · deceit · manipulation
apathy
Absence of feeling
coldness · detachment · insensitivity · dismissiveness · disinterest · nonchalance · aloofness · impassivity · unresponsiveness · obliviousness
- insensitivitycallousness, cold-heartedness, hard-heartedness, inconsideration, indifference
- vicesgreed, envy, lust, gluttony, vanity
- crueltycruelty, brutality, inhumanity, viciousness, ruthlessness
- malevolencemalevolence, cruelty, viciousness, malice, spite
- coldnesscold, chill, freeze, freezing, coolness
- savagerybarbarism, barbarity, brutality, brutishness, cruelty
heartlessnesscompassion
Concern for others' distress
warmheartedness · tenderness · kindheartedness · warmth · warm-heartedness
heartlessnessbenevolence
Disposition toward doing good
mercy · kindness · compassion · charity · humaneness
heart, hearty, heartfelt, hearts, heartbeat, heartless, hearten, disheartened, dishearten