Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Callous |
CallousAdjective1. Emotionally hardened; "a callous indifference to suffering"; "cold-blooded and indurate to public opinion". Verb1. Make insensitive or callous. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "callous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Callous \Cal"lous\, adjective. [Latin expression callosus callous hard, from callum, callus, callous skin: compare to the French expression calleux.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | CALLOUS, adj. Gifted with great fortitude to bear the evils afflicting another. When Zeno was told that one of his enemies was no more he was observed to be deeply moved. "What!" said one of his disciples, "you weep at the death of an enemy?" "Ah, 'tis true," replied the great Stoic; "but you should see me smile at the death of a friend.". Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: CallousSynonyms: indurate (adj), pachydermatous (adj), thick-skinned (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Insensibility | Render insensible, render callous; blunt, obtund, numb, benumb, paralyze, deaden, hebetate, stun, stupefy; brutify; brutalize; chloroform, anaesthetize, put under; assify. |
Callous, thick-skinned, hard-nosed, pachydermatous, impervious; hardened; inured, casehardened; steeled against, proof against; imperturbable; (inexcitable); unfelt. | |
Physical Insensibility | Adjective: insensible, unfeeling, senseless, impercipient, callous, thick-skinned, pachydermatous; hard, hardened; case hardened; proof, obtuse, dull; anaesthetic; comatose, paralytic, palsied, numb, dead. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Callous |
| English words defined with "callous": callously, Casehardened, Cataphracted, Corpus callosum ♦ hard-bitten, hard-boiled, Horny-handed ♦ indurate ♦ Jards ♦ pachydermatous, pugnacious ♦ Searedness ♦ thick-skinned ♦ unfeelingly. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "callous": callous tissue ♦ Hallux Valgus ♦ leaving scene of accident ♦ Saccharine Principle in Things. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "callous": Callid, Callose, Callosum, Callus. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I'm used to the callous attitude mortals have towards vampires. (She-Wolf of London; writing credit: Hans Beimler) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Callous Sentiment (2002) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his "natural superiors," and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous "cash payment." It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Fingers of the left hand must have callous caps. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The nodules develop from damage caused by repeated pressure on the same area much like a callous forms on areas of a person's feet that are irritated by tight shoes. (references) | |
A vocal polyp, also called Reinke's edema or polypoid degeneration, is a benign growth that is similar to a vocal nodule but is softer, more like a blister than a callous. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Jimmy Carter | 1977-1981 | This attempt to subjugate an independent, non-aligned Islamic people is a callous violation of international law and the United Nations Charter, two fundamentals of international order. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Callous" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 98.48% of the time. "Callous" is used about 198 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 98.48% | 195 | 21,939 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.52% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 198 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "callous": callous tissue ♦ get callous. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
callous | 55 |
callous remover | 12 |
foot callous | 11 |
callous removal | 10 |
callous treatment | 3 |
callous foot removal | 2 |
callous corn | 2 |
callous eliminator | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "callous"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | zemërgur (cruel, hard-hearted, heartless, obdurate, stony hearted, unfeeling), me kallo (horny), i pashpirt (hard, hard-hearted, harsh, heartless, heavy-handed, insensate, soulless). (various references) | |
Arabic | قاسي القلب (cold), قاس صلب (concrete, firm, hard, harsh, inflexible, relentless, rigid, rough, ruthless, severe, solid, stiff, strict, tough), قاس (austere, concrete, cruel, cutthroat, drastic, firm, gauge, hard, hard-hearted, harsh, inclement, inflexible, measure, merciless, pitiless, relentless, rigid, rigorous, rough, rugged, ruthless, scale, severe, solid, standardize, stark, stern, stiff, strict, stringent, tape, tough, try on, unfeeling, unkind, unyielding), صلب (adamant, aguish, callosity, cast iron, concrete, consolidate, corneous, cross oneself, crucifixion, crucify, cruel, firm, harden, horny, inflexible, loin, metallic, out and out, persistent, ramrod, resistant, rigid, robust, sear, solid, solidary, stabile, stark, stiff, stiffen, stubborn, temper, tenacious, tough, unkind, unyielding), جعله صلبا, جاسئ (rigid, stiff). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | коравосърдечен (flinthearted, hardhearted, inhumane, obdurate, stony, stony hearted, unfeeling, unforgiving, unpitying, unsympathetic), груб (abrupt, bearish, boeotian, brusque, churlish, clownish, clumsy, coarse, coarse grained, common, crude, cubbish, curt, earthy, feral, glaring, graceless, gross, gruff, hard boiled, harsh, heavy, hoggish, homespun, horny, loutish, low, material, outlandish, raspy, raucous, raw, rough, rough-shod, rowdy, rude, rugged, russet, rusty, short, surly, tough, uncivil, uncouth, wild and woolly), закоравял (case-hardened, chronic, confirmed, crusted, double-dyed, habitual, hard boiled, indurate, ingrain, ingrained, inveterate, irreclaimable, obdurate, tough). (various references) | |
Chinese | 胝 , 膙 , 趼 , 情 (Callousness, heartless, inhumanity, ruthlessness, unfeeling, unsympathetic). (various references) | |
Czech | ztvrdlý (hardened, horny), zrohovatìlý (horny), tvrdý (big, brazen, crackdown, cruel, deep, hard, harsh, heavy, relentless, rigorous, sound, steely, stiff, stone-dead, stony, tough, unkind), otrlý (hard bitten, hardened, hard-nosed), necitelný (hard boiled, heartless, impassable, rough, unfeeling), mozolovitý, bezohledný (cutthroat, heartless, inconsiderate, reckless, ruthless, thoughtless, unceremonious, unscrupulous). (various references) | |
Danish | callusagtig, kalløs. (various references) | |
Dutch | callosus, verhard, vereelt. (various references) | |
Farsi | پینه زدن , پینه خورده (Sclerous), پنبه ای , سفت (Astringent, Concrete, Fast, Hard, Inelastic, Ironclad, Stark, Stiff, Taut, Tenacious, Tense, Thick, Tight, Tough, Wiry), سنگ دل , بیحس (Impassive, Insensate, Insensible, Insensitive, Numb, Obtuse, Senseless, Unfeeling), بی حس کردن (Stun), بی عاطفه (Impassive, Inhuman, Insensate, Insensitive, Obdurate, Stolid, Unfeeling, Unkind). (various references) | |
Finnish | känsäinen. (various references) | |
French | calleux. (various references) | |
German | schwielig (callously, callused, horny), kallös, hart (astringent, callously, cruel, cut, firm, grim, hard, hard boiled, hard core, hardly, harsh, harshly, punishing, rigorous, rigorously, robust, rough, roughly, rude, severe, severely, sharp, sharply, stable, steely, stiff, strong, tough, unsympathetically, unyielding, violent). (various references) | |
Greek | κάλοσ στο μυαλό, ροζιασμένοσ (gnarled), σκληρόσ (bloody minded, cold-hearted, cruel, crusty, flinty, hard, scirrhous, steely, stiff, stony, stubbed, stubbly, tough, truculent), πωρωμένοσ, αναίσθητοσ (cold blooded, impassible, insensate, insensitive, insentient, senseless, unconscious, unfeeling), τυλώδησ, τυλώδης. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מוקשח, קשוח (cruel, harsh, impenitent, inexorable, stern, stony, tough). (various references) | |
Hungarian | bőrkeményedéses (callused, horny), érzéketlen (brutish, dead pan, emotionless, have a thick skin, impassible, impassive, impervious, indifferent, inert, inhumane, insensate, insensitive, insentient, insusceptible, numbed, seared, senseless, thick skin, thick-skinned, unaffected, unfeeling, unmoved). (various references) | |
Indonesian | kejam (demoniac, demonic, diabolical, ferocious, grim, hard hearted, harsh, inhuman, ruthless). (various references) | |
Italian | calloso (horny). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 非情 (heartless, inanimate nature). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ひじょう (emergency, extraordinary, heartless, inanimate nature, unusual). (various references) | |
Korean | 무 한 (heartless, unfeeling). (various references) | |
Manx | gyn ennaghtyn (senseless, unfeelingly), feayr-chreeagh (cold-hearted), creoi-chreeagh (coldblooded, flinty, heartless, stony-hearted). (various references) | |
Norwegian | ufølsom (insensible), hard (hard, harsh). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | allouscay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | caloso (cereal, corny, horny). (various references) | |
Romanian | crud (brutal, brutally, callow, crude, cruel, cruelly, cut throat, dire, foully, gory, green, hard, harsh, immature, merciless, raw, ruthless, sanguinary, savage, savagely, sodden, sour, truculent, unfeeling, violent, violently, wolfish, young), nesimţit (pachyderm, pachydermatous, stealthily, thick-skinned), insensibil (cold-hearted, dead, dull, hard-hearted, immune, imperceptible, impervious, indolent, insensate, insensible, insensitive, insusceptible, irresponsive, obdurate, unfeeling), dur (difficult, dour, firm, hard, harsh, rigid, rough, roughly, stern, strict, stubborn, troublesome), bãtãtorit (beaten, packed, trodden), aspru (abrupt, abruptly, acid, acrimonious, biting, brisk, clumsy, coarse, crisp, dour, drastic, earthy, edgy, exacting, firm, grating, gruelling, gruff, hard, harsh, hoarse, homespun, husky, ill, inclement, iron, iron-fisted, keen, lashing, nippy, obdurate, punitive, rasping, rigid, rigidly, rigorous, robust, rough, rugged, scabrous, severe, severely, shaggy, shy, smart, snappish, stern, stiff, Strait, strict, strong, stubborn, tough, unkind, violent, wiry), învârtoşare (callosity, obduracy), îngroşat (thick), împietrit (dumbfounded, harsh, rocky, stuporous). (various references) | |
Russian | толстокожий (pachydermatous, thickskin, thickskinned, thick-skinned), омозолелый, мозолистый, загрубелый (coarsened), бездушный (soulless, uninspired). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | kvrgav (gnarled, knaggy, knotty, snaggy, tubercular, tuberous), žuljevit. (various references) | |
Spanish | calloso (horny, rough). (various references) | |
Swedish | okänslig (dead, dull, immune, impassible, impassive, indifferent, insensate, insensible, insensitive, insusceptible, refractory, unfeeling, unresponsive). (various references) | |
Turkish | nasırlı (corny, hard), nasır tutmak, katı (emphatic, emphatical, firm, fold, hard, hard and fast, hard boiled, hard line, insensitive, ironclad, rigid, sclerous, solid, Square, steel, steely, stern, stiff, strict), hissizleşmek (become numb, indurate), hissiz (apathetic, apathetical, benumbed, bloodless, crass, cruel, devoid of feelings, dispassionate, down to earth, impassible, impassive, indifferent, insensate, insensible, insensitive, insentient, insusceptible, numb, senseless, soulless, torpid), duygusuzlaşmak (harden), duygusuz (apathetic, apathetical, as cold as charity, bloodless, blunt, coldhearted, conscience-proof, devoid of feelings, dull, frigid, hard-hearted, impassible, insensate, insensitive, marble, matter of fact, numb, obtuse, phlegmatic, phlegmatical, senseless, soulless, steel, stolid, stony, unemotional, unfeeling, unmoved), şefkâtsiz (uncharitable, unloving). (various references) | |
Turkmen | gabarmak, gabarзyk. (various references) | |
Ukranian | черствий (cold-hearted, Hoar, obdurate, ossified, stale), твердий (choky, consistent, coriaceous, crisp, crusty, deep-seated, firm, hard, hard and fast, resolute, settled, solid, staunch, steadfast, stern, strong, tough), шкарубкий, огрубілий, нечулий (chill, hard boiled, nonchalant), мозолястий (corny, horny), жорсткий (flinty, hard, harsh, horny, leathery, procrustean, rigid, wiry), безсердечний (cold-hearted, hard-hearted, heartless, ossified, unnatural), бездушний (brute, chill, hardened, hard-hearted, hollow-hearted, inanimate, ossified, soulless). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | callosus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "callous": calloused, callouses, callousing, callously, callousness, callousnesses. (additional references) | |
Words containing "callous": uncalloused. (additional references) | |
| |
"Callous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Acilius, Caillau, caillaux, Caillou, Cailloux, calaloo, calcus, callaus, Callias, callis, calloo, Callooh, callos, callots, callouse, Callows, calluos, Caloo, calotus, calous, calouse, calvous, caulibus, celous, Coillabus, Colohus, cololur, cololurs, colous, Eallabus, fallous, falous, Kalou, Malloum, Malous, Sallois. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "callous" (pronounced ka"lus) |
| 5 | k a" l u s | callus. |
| 4 | -a" l u s | balas, digitalis, Gallus, malice, palace, prothallus. |
| 3 | -l u s | accomplice, acropolis, ageless, aimless, airless, Amaryllis, anomalous, atlas, bacillus, backless, baseless, blameless, bloodless, bolus, boneless, bottomless, boundless, brainless, breathless, calculus, careless, Carolus, cashless, ceaseless, childless, classless, cloudless, clueless, Colas, colorless, cordless, countless, cutlass, defenseless, directionless, doubtless, driverless, ductless, earless, effortless, endless, expressionless, eyeless, fabulous, faceless, fatherless, fearless, featherless, featureless, feckless, fellas, fenceless, flawless, flightless, frictionless, frivolous, fruitless, garrulous, gladiolus, godless, graceless, groundless, guileless, guiltless, hairless, hapless, harmless, headless, heartless, helpless, homeless, hopeless, hornless, humorless, incredulous, irregardless, issueless, jealous, jobless, keyless, lactobacillus, landless, lawless, leaderless, leafless, legless, libelous, lifeless, limbless, limitless, listless, loveless, luckless, marvelous, meaningless, meatless, megalopolis, merciless, meticulous, metropolis, mindless, miraculous, motherless, motionless, nameless, nautilus, nebulous, necklace, necropolis, needless, odorless, overzealous, Oxalis, painless, paperless, peerless, pendulous, penniless, perilous, pilotless, pitiless, pointless, polis, populace, populous, powerless, priceless, purposeless, querulous, reckless, regardless, relentless, remorseless, restless, ridiculous, riskless, rootless, rudderless, ruthless, scandalous, scoreless, scrupulous, scurrilous, seamless, selfless, senseless, sexless, shameless, shapeless, shiftless, skinless, sleepless, sleeveless, smokeless, solace, soulless, speechless, spineless, spotless, stainless, stateless, stimulus, stylus, surplus, syphilis, tantalus, tasteless, thankless, thoughtless, ticketless, tieless, timeless, tireless, toothless, topless, treeless, trellis, tremulous, unscrupulous, useless, valueless, victimless, voiceless, warrantless, weightless, windlass, windowless, wireless, witless, wordless, worthless, zealous, zipless. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-l-l-o-s-u" | |
-1 letter: callus, locals, oscula, sulcal. | |
-2 letters: calls, calos, cauls, coals, colas, culls, local, locus, ollas, salol, scall, scull. | |
-3 letters: alls, also, call, calo, caul, coal, cola, cols, cull, lacs, loca, ocas, olla, sall, saul, sola, soul. | |
-4 letters: all, als, col, cos, lac, las, oca, sac, sal, sau, sol, sou. | |
-5 letters: al, as, la, lo, os, so, us. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-l-l-o-s-u" | |
+1 letter: locustal, occlusal. | |
+2 letters: calculous, calloused, callouses, callously, caudillos, molluscan. | |
+3 letters: alliaceous, callousing, cancellous, cloudlands, colleagues, fallacious, hellacious, leucoplast, subvocally, unsocially. | |
+4 letters: allocutions, altocumulus, calcicolous, calculators, callipygous, callousness, calmodulins, caudillismo, clamorously, collagenous, colloquials, eucalyptols, flocculants, flocculates, larcenously, leucoplasts, lumbosacral, maliciously, nucleoplasm, nucleosomal, salaciously, uncalloused, unscholarly. | |
+5 letters: acoustically, argillaceous, calamitously, calcareously, calculations, calumniously, caudillismos, cauliflowers, chivalrously, clangorously, consensually, cupellations, eucalyptoles, fallaciously, flocculators, gallinaceous, hallucinoses, hallucinosis, hellaciously, lasciviously, loquaciously, malocclusion, miraculously, museological, nucleoplasms, scandalously, subsonically. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)43 61 6C 6C 6F 75 73 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.-. .- .-.. .-.. --- ..- ... |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000011 01100001 01101100 01101100 01101111 01110101 01110011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)C a l l o u s |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0043 0061 006C 006C 006F 0075 0073 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)37677878818785 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Historic 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Speeches 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Orthography 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
