Standard Lemma guide

merciless

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmɜːsɪləs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈmɝsɪləs/
  • CMU ARPABET: M ER1 S AH0 L AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: unmerciful, cruel, pitiless, ruthless, barbarous, bowelless, brutal, compassionless, demonic, despiteful, diabolic, diabolical, fell, incessive, inclement, inhuman, inhumane, malicious, merciless, nasty, nonhumane, remorseless, rotten, sadistic, savage, spiteful, truculent, unbenevolent, unbenign, unkind, unpitiful, unpitying

Antonyms: merciful

2

adjective

Meaning 2

having or showing no mercy

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the merciless enemy
  • a merciless critic
  • gave him a merciless beating

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: unmerciful

Antonyms: merciful

History

Etymology

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

Across languages

Translations

52 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: безмилостен (bezmilosten) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Catalan: despietat — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Chinese Mandarin: 殘忍 /残忍 (cánrěn) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Chinese Mandarin: 無情 /无情 (wúqíng) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Czech: nemilosrdný — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Danish: nådesløs — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Dutch: genadeloos — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Finnish: armoton — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Finnish: säälimätön — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • French: impitoyable — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • German: gnadenlos — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Greek: αλύπητος (alýpitos) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Ancient Greek: ἀνελεήμων (aneleḗmōn) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Ancient Greek: ἄσπλαγχνος (ásplankhnos) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Hindi: निर्दय (nirday) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Hindi: निष्ठुर (niṣṭhur) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Hindi: निर्दयी (nirdayī) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Hindi: क्रूर (krūr) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Hungarian: kegyetlen — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Hungarian: könyörtelen — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Indonesian: sadis — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Irish: éadrócaireach — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Irish: neamhthrócaireach — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Italian: spietato — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Italian: crudele — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Japanese: 無慈悲 (mujihi) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Japanese: 容赦ない (yōsha nai) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Korean: 무자비하다 (mujabihada) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Latin: immisericors — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Lithuanian: negailestingas — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Norwegian Bokmål: nådeløs — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: nådelaus — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Polish: bezlitosny — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Polish: niemiłosierny — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Polish: bezpardonowy — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Polish: bezwzględny — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Portuguese: impiedoso — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Portuguese: imisericordioso — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Russian: беспоща́дный (bespoščádnyj) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Russian: безжа́лостный (bezžálostnyj) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Scottish Gaelic: mì-chneasta — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Spanish: despiadado — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Spanish: inmisericorde — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Swedish: skoningslös — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Swedish: obarmhärtig — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Tagalog: walang awa — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Turkish: acımasız — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Ottoman Turkish: دینسز (dinsiz) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Ukrainian: безжалісний (bezžalisnyj) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Ukrainian: безжальний (bezžalʹnyj) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Ukrainian: безпощадний (bezpoščadnyj) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless
  • Ukrainian: немилосе́рдний (nemylosérdnyj) — showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless