Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Heartless |
HeartlessAdjective1. Marked by lack of heart or feeling; "a heartless tyrant"; "heartless words". 2. Lacking in feeling or pity or warmth. 3. (archaic) devoid of courage or enthusiasm. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "heartless" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1594. (references) |
Synonym: HeartlessSynonym: hardhearted (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonyms: hearted (adj), softhearted (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Insensibility | Adjective: insensible, unconscious; impassive, impassible; blind to, deaf to, dead to; unsusceptible, insusceptible; unimpressionable, unimpressible; passionless, spiritless, heartless, soulless; unfeeling, unmoral. |
Vice | Evil-minded, evil-disposed; ill-conditioned; malevolent; heartless, graceless, shameless, virtueless; abandoned, lost to virtue; unconscionable; sunk in iniquity, lost in iniquity, steeped in iniquity. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Heartless |
| English words defined with "heartless": heartlessly. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "heartless": Aldabella ♦ Beauty of Buttermere ♦ Dalgarno ♦ Pecksniff. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Until now. When the Heartless came, everything changed (Kingdom Hearts; writing credit: Billy Gallo; Robert Gillings) But you have just said it was heartless to eat muffins (The Importance of Being Earnest; writing credit: Oliver Parker; Oscar Wilde) Heartless young woman left alone in her arctic desolation (Network; writing credit: Paddy Chayefsky) Women have a heartless side to them, don't they (Texasville; writing credit: Peter Bogdanovich) You heartless whore (Absolute Power; writing credit: William Goldman) | |
Lyrics | They say i'm wrong and i'm heartless (Dear Mama; performing artist: 2Pac) How can people be so heartless (Easy to Be Hard; performing artist: Three Dog Night) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Heartless Husbands (1925) Queen of Hearts 3: Heartless (1992) Heartless (1990) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Play | Caption |
 | Abominable; amoral; atrocious; base; contemptible; corrupt; debased; degenerate; depraved; devilish; dissolute; egregious; evil; fiendish; flagitious; foul; gross; guilty; heartless; heinous; immoral; impious; impish; incorrigible; indecent; iniquitous; i. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. | Morality cannot be legislated but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Neither hector, nor heartless. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Woodrow Wilson | 1913-1921 | There has been something crude and heartless and unfeeling in our haste to succeed and be great. |
Ronald Reagan | 1981-1989 | But we must revise or replace programs enacted in the name of compassion that degrade the moral worth of work, encourage family breakups, and drive entire communities into a bleak and heartless dependency. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Heartless" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Heartless" is used about 135 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) | 100% | 135 | 27,360 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; 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. |
| Language | Translations for "heartless"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | zemërgur (callous, cruel, hard-hearted, obdurate, stony hearted, unfeeling), jo guximtar, i pazemër, i pashpirt (callous, hard, hard-hearted, harsh, heavy-handed, insensate, soulless). (various references) | |
Arabic | متحجر القلب (ruthless), عديم الرحمة (merciless, pitiless, remorseless, unmerciful), عديم الشفقة (relentless, remorseless), جبان (apprehensive, chicken, chicken heart, chicken hearted, coward, cowardly, cur, faint, fearful, fearsome, funk, funky, lily livered, pigeon-hearted, poor spirited, pusillanimous, scared, sheepish, shy, sissified, sissy, spiritless, timid, timorous, tremulous, unmanly, weak-kneed). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | безсърдечен (cold-hearted, pitiless), безжалостен (inexorable, inexpiable, merciless, pitiless, remorseless, ruthless, savage), бездушен (exanimate, indurate, niminy-piminy, soulless, spiritless, toneless, torpid, unanimated, unsympathetic). (various references) | |
Chinese | 情 (Callous, Callousness, inhumanity, ruthlessness, unfeeling, unsympathetic), 不仁 (not benevolent, numb). (various references) | |
Czech | nemilosrdný (hard-hearted, pitiless, remorseless, ruthless, savage, ungracious, unmerciful, unsparing), necitelný (callous, hard boiled, impassable, rough, unfeeling), krutý (atrocious, bitter, brutal, cruel, dispiteous, extreme, fierce, gory, grim, hard, harsh, heathenish, rigid, ruthless, savage, severe, torsion, unkind, unrelenting, vicious, wolfish), bezohledný (callous, cutthroat, inconsiderate, reckless, ruthless, thoughtless, unceremonious, unscrupulous), bezcitný (cold-hearted, cruel, hard-hearted, insusceptible, pitiless, remorseless, ruthless, stony, stonyhearted, unfeeling, unkind). (various references) | |
Finnish | sydämetön. (various references) | |
French | sans pitié, sans coeur (heartlessly), sans c"ur, lâche, cruel. (various references) | |
German | herzlos (callous, callously, heartlessly, uncharitable, unfeeling, unfeelingly, ungiving, unkindly). (various references) | |
Greek | άκαρδοσ (soulless, spiritless), άκαρδος (heartless to). (various references) | |
Hebrew | חסר לב. (various references) | |
Hungarian | szívtelen (callous, hard-hearted, he's as hard as a flint, ruthless, stony hearted, stony-hearted, uncharitable). (various references) | |
Italian | insensibile (callous, coldhearted, dead, hard-hearted, heartlessly, imperceptible, indifferent, insensible, insensitive, loveless, thick skinned, thick-skinned, unfeeling, ungiving, unkind, unkindly). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 薄情 (cold-hearted, cruel, unfeeling). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ひに"じょう (inhuman, unfeeling), ひじょう (callous, emergency, extraordinary, inanimate nature, unusual), い""う (causes and actions, cruel, ex-emperor, results of actions in previous life), れい'" (foreword, grim, miracle, miraculous efficacy, miraculous virtue, preface, stark, stern), れいけつか" (cold-blooded person, coldhearted person), はくじょう (cold-hearted, confession, cruel, unfeeling). (various references) | |
Korean | 무 한 (Callous, unfeeling). (various references) | |
Manx | gyn cree, creoi-chreeagh (callous, coldblooded, flinty, stony-hearted), creoi (adamant, bitter, bitter of frost, blistering, blistering as language, difficult, distressing, dry, hard, hard-boiled, hard-set, hardy, near, near with money, neat, obdurate, solid, steely, stiff, stiffen, stubborn, tough). (various references) | |
Norwegian | hjerteløs. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eartlesshay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | sem corao, sem compaixo, impiedoso (flinty, grim, merciless, pitiless, ruthless, unrelenting, unsparing), duro (adamant, callous, cornered, crapy, crusty, die-hard, flinty, grueling, gruelling, gruff, hard, hard-boiled, hard-up, iron, iron-bound, jarring, marble, non-ductile, racking, rocky, rough, rugged, set, severe, shrewd, sinewy, solid, stand-up, stern, stiff, toilsome, tough, unfeeling, unkind, unrelenting, unyielding, wiry), desumano (atrocious, fell, flint-hearted, flinty, hard-hearted, inhuman, inhumane, merciless, ruthless, soulless, unmerciful), cruel (atrocious, barbaric, bitter, bloody, boarish, candle-wick, cruel, dark, fell, felon, fierce, grim, hard-hearted, inhuman, iron, merciless, pitiless, ruffian, ruthless, scathing, severe, shrewish, squint-eyed, tigerish, tigrish, truculent, uncharitable, unfeeling, unkind, unmerciful, wicked, wolfish). (various references) | |
Romanian | fãrã inimã (cold-hearted, soulless). (various references) | |
Russian | бессердечный (cold-hearted), безжалостный (dispiteous, hard-faced, inexorable, merciless, pitiless, relentless, remorseless, ruthless, unmerciful, unrelenting). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | bezdušan (cold-hearted, hardhearted, obdurate, soulless). (various references) | |
Spanish | sin corazón, insensible (bloodless, cold-hearted, imperceptible, impervious, insensate, insensible, insensitive, insusceptible, irresponsive, pachyderm, pachydermatous, regardless, thick-skinned, unfeeling, unresponsive), inhumano (inhuman, inhumane, inhumanly, pitiless, unhuman), empedernido (confirmed, die hard, double-dyed, habitual, inveterate, stony), desalmado (fiend, heartlessly, ungiving, unkindly, unscrupulous), cruel (bad, barbarous, brutal, cruel, fell, flint hearted, grievous, hard, harsh, inhuman, murderous, oppressive, pitiless, ruthless, savage, unkind, vicious, wicked). (various references) | |
Swedish | hjärtlös (uncaring, unfeeling). (various references) | |
Turkish | hevessiz, uyuz (inert, itch, itchy, languid, mange, mangy, scab, scabby, scabies, scabious, slouching, slouchy, stick in the mud), kalpsiz, insafsız (confiscatory, cutthroat, fell, inequitable, inhumane, iniquitous, merciless, relentless, ruthless, unconscientious, unconscionable, unfair, unfeeling, unjust, unkind, unmerciful, wrongful), cansız (apathetic, apathetical, bloodless, colorless, dead, dead pan, dying, exanimate, feckless, flagging, inanimate, lackadaisical, lackluster, lacklustre, languid, lifeless, listless, poky, sapless, singsong, sluggish, soulless, spiritless, stagnant, toneless, torpid, weak, wishy washy, wishywashy). (various references) | |
Turkmen | rehimsiz (ruthless, soulless), birehim (worthless). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | боязкий (backward, bashful, coward, dastard, dastardly, diffident, eerie, eery, faint-hearted, fearful, nervous, ovine, pavid, poor spirited, shamefaced, sheepish, spiritless, timid, timorous), безсердечний (callous, cold-hearted, hard-hearted, ossified, unnatural), безплідний (abortive, arid, barren, effete, hungry, nonbearing, otiose, sterile). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | vô tình (bloodless, casual, indeliberate, promiscuous, unconcerned, unsympathetic, untouched), không có tình nhẫn tâm; ác. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "heartless": heartlessly, heartlessness, heartlessnesses. (additional references) | |
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"Heartless" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Hartless. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "heartless" (pronounced hÄ"rtlus) |
| 4 | -t l u s | atlas, countless, cutlass, doubtless, ductless, effortless, flightless, fruitless, guiltless, limitless, listless, meatless, pilotless, pointless, relentless, restless, rootless, shiftless, spotless, stateless, tasteless, thoughtless, ticketless, warrantless, weightless, witless. |
| 3 | -l u s | accomplice, acropolis, ageless, aimless, airless, Amaryllis, anomalous, bacillus, backless, balas, baseless, blameless, bloodless, bolus, boneless, bottomless, boundless, brainless, breathless, calculus, callous, callus, careless, Carolus, cashless, ceaseless, childless, classless, cloudless, clueless, Colas, colorless, cordless, defenseless, digitalis, directionless, driverless, earless, endless, expressionless, eyeless, fabulous, faceless, fatherless, fearless, featherless, featureless, feckless, fellas, fenceless, flawless, frictionless, frivolous, Gallus, garrulous, gladiolus, godless, graceless, groundless, guileless, hairless, hapless, harmless, headless, helpless, homeless, hopeless, hornless, humorless, incredulous, irregardless, issueless, jealous, jobless, keyless, lactobacillus, landless, lawless, leaderless, leafless, legless, libelous, lifeless, limbless, loveless, luckless, malice, marvelous, meaningless, megalopolis, merciless, meticulous, metropolis, mindless, miraculous, motherless, motionless, nameless, nautilus, nebulous, necklace, necropolis, needless, odorless, overzealous, Oxalis, painless, palace, paperless, peerless, pendulous, penniless, perilous, pitiless, polis, populace, populous, powerless, priceless, prothallus, purposeless, querulous, reckless, regardless, remorseless, ridiculous, riskless, rudderless, ruthless, scandalous, scoreless, scrupulous, scurrilous, seamless, selfless, senseless, sexless, shameless, shapeless, skinless, sleepless, sleeveless, smokeless, solace, soulless, speechless, spineless, stainless, stimulus, stylus, surplus, syphilis, tantalus, thankless, tieless, timeless, tireless, toothless, topless, treeless, trellis, tremulous, unscrupulous, useless, valueless, victimless, voiceless, windlass, windowless, wireless, wordless, worthless, zealous, zipless. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-e-h-l-r-s-s-t" | |
-1 letter: halteres, harslets, heatless, leathers, reslates, shelters, slathers, stealers, tearless. | |
-2 letters: aethers, artless, ashlers, earless, easters, elaters, haltere, halters, harslet, haslets, hatless, healers, hearses, heaters, lashers, lasters, lathers, leasers, leashes, leather, rashest, realest, reheats, relates, resales, reseals, reseats, reslate, salters, sealers, searest, seaters, sheltas, shelter, slasher, slaters, slather, stealer, streels, teasels, teasers, tessera. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-e-h-l-r-s-s-t" | |
+1 letter: breathless, fatherless, threadless, trehaloses. | |
+2 letters: earthliness, establisher, featherless, heartlessly, reestablish, sphalerites. | |
+3 letters: breathlessly, daughterless, establishers, etherealness, fatherliness, preestablish, rathskellers, shrievalties, slaughterers, stakeholders, weatherglass. | |
+4 letters: blatherskites, characterless, earthlinesses, heartlessness, heterosexuals, laureateships, phalansteries, reestablished, reestablishes, southeasterly, steeplechaser, superathletes, telegrapheses, telegraphists, unearthliness. | |
+5 letters: breathlessness, charitableness, cholinesterase, etherealnesses, fatherlinesses, preestablished, preestablishes, reestablishing, rehospitalizes, schoolteachers, shareabilities, slaughterhouse, steeplechasers, weatherglasses, wrathfulnesses. | |
| 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. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Sounds 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Speeches 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
