How to Use ruthless in a Sentence

ruthless

adjective
  • The journalist was ruthless in his criticism.
  • The hard thing is to be ruthless.
    — Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2025
  • The chain gang is one of the most ruthless places in the world.
    — Winfred Rembert, The New Yorker, 3 May 2021
  • The reset is a chance to be ruthless.
    — Lauren Jarvis-Gibson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 May 2026
  • But this seems a lot more gutless than ruthless.
    — Steve Conroy, Boston Herald, 20 May 2026
  • When times get tough, Levi asks for help from a ruthless loan shark.
    — Kirby Adams, The Courier-Journal, 27 Dec. 2022
  • The Celtics' fans are right up there as the most ruthless in the league.
    — Duane Rankin, The Arizona Republic, 7 Jan. 2022
  • This isn’t the first time the ruthless Feyd has been brought to the big screen.
    — Julia Moore, Peoplemag, 25 Jan. 2024
  • Matthews’ power-play goal was ruthless.
    — Joshua Kloke, New York Times, 17 Dec. 2025
  • But she was also known for being ruthless to deal with.
    — Roshane Thomas, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2026
  • Many of them want the next prime minister to be more ruthless.
    — The Economist, 5 Dec. 2019
  • As her success and power grow, so too does her ruthless rule.
    — Laura Zornosa, TIME, 26 Jan. 2024
  • The court of public opinion is a ruthless and volatile beast.
    — Naveen Kumar, Town & Country, 12 July 2022
  • His eyes gave him away as a ruthless competitor.
    — Troy Renck, Denver Post, 28 May 2026
  • There is a relentless, ruthless edge to him.
    — Paul Taylor, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2025
  • But chronic pain is a ruthless teacher.
    — Erica Chidi, SELF, 22 Jan. 2026
  • This was Notre Dame football at its ruthless best.
    — Pete Sampson, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2025
  • Tony and Cameron are recklessly ruthless and so fun to watch.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 15 May 2026
  • How ironic that the quirky Tennant would be the most ruthless?
    — Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly, 23 Nov. 2025
  • Putin point-blank as a ruthless dictator who the world must unite to defeat.
    — Dean Obeidallah, CNN, 27 Feb. 2022
  • Four friends must save the world when a ruthless alien crashes a birthday party.
    — Ed Stockly, Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2021
  • Goff doesn’t seem to take a ruthless or mendacious approach to the game.
    — William Herkewitz, Popular Mechanics, 29 Sep. 2020
  • One of Gotham's most ruthless villains is getting his time to shine.
    — Sadie Bell, Peoplemag, 22 Mar. 2024
  • Cuomo cannot fail, he can only be failed—in this case by a ruthless virus and out-to-lunch feds.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 2 Feb. 2021
  • The fight to stay at the top of the cheer pyramid is ruthless on Dare Me.
    — Ew Staff, EW.com, 13 May 2021
  • Lexi is adrift in the ruthless world of Hollywood.
    — Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 2 June 2026
  • In other words, the suits would prefer to keep the right to be ruthless to themselves.
    — Emily Stewart, Town & Country, 3 June 2021
  • Not wild and consuming, but as sharp and ruthless as their practice blades had once been.
    — Seija Rankin, EW.com, 8 July 2020
  • The key to implementing deep work, though, is to be ruthless.
    — Expert Panel, Forbes, 20 May 2021
  • After all, the species has long been painted as ruthless (ahem, Jaws).
    — Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 10 Apr. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ruthless.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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