mercilessly

adverb

as in ruthlessly

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of mercilessly Because sometimes, somebody will go down, and then the other fighter will jump on him and start punching him mercilessly in the head. — David Remnick, New Yorker, 22 May 2026 The home crowd mercilessly booed Schultz as Arraez jogged off the pain, then cheered even louder when the pitcher was pulled from the game. — Justice Delos Santos, Mercury News, 24 May 2026 All Harris needed was a 10-men England side to hold on as El Tri mercilessly delivered crosses into the box. — Fisher Isbell, AJC.com, 7 July 2026 Swift was mercilessly dragged into court proceedings when Baldoni accused Lively of leveraging Swift to intimidate him during the shoot. — Marc Malkin, Variety, 2 July 2026 The second Test was all over rapidly and mercilessly on Sunday when Matt Henry took the remaining five wickets within the first hour to finish with 11 in the match. — Paul Newman, New York Times, 21 June 2026 Some commentators’ dark horses for the tournament, Norway qualified from Europe with a perfect record, pillaging goals at will, while mercilessly dispatching opponents. — Jonathan Thompson, Travel + Leisure, 10 June 2026 The parody would begin with Oteri's Gail Hailstorm, a riff on Courteney Cox's mercilessly ambitious reporter Gale Weathers in the Scream franchise. — Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 10 June 2026 It’s been blistering in New York City, with temperatures registering in the high 90s on successive days, then climbing to 100 degrees Thursday and mercilessly extending into the Fourth of July. — Roni Jacobson, New York Daily News, 5 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mercilessly
  1. ruthlessly
  2. unmercifully
  3. pitilessly
  4. heartlessly
  5. callously
  6. unsparingly
  7. brutally
  8. inhumanly
Adverb
  • Underdog sides have generally attempted to build up methodically with the ball, but any lapses of concentration have been ruthlessly punished by attackers who press hard and counter-attack quickly.
    — Mark Carey, New York Times, 28 June 2026
  • Leaders must immediately audit burn rate, freeze nonessential spend, tighten inventory cycles and reforecast ruthlessly.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 26 June 2026
Definition of ruthlessly
Adverb
  • Any party member who seeks to defy his wishes risks losing a seat, being unmercifully gaslit, or trashed on Truth Social.
    — Rob Crilly, The Washington Examiner, 22 May 2026
  • Now my son is dead after suffering unmercifully.
    — Rick Sobey, Boston Herald, 6 Feb. 2026
Definition of unmercifully
Adverb
  • The first hour, set at a resort that’s like a singles cruise through the Twilight Zone (or Bachelor in Paradise beamed in from a brutal alternate universe), contains some of the most pitilessly funny scenes of the filmmaker’s career.
    — A.A. Dowd, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2025
Definition of pitilessly
Adverb
  • Victim Nyron Shaw’s father said the driver who mowed his son down last year in Ocean Hill a day before Independence Day should face the maximum penalty for allegedly driving twice the speed limit and heartlessly taking off, leaving his son to die.
    — Nicholas Williams, New York Daily News, 8 Apr. 2026
  • In the process, Joel heartlessly killed some innocent people, including medical professionals.
    — EW.com, EW.com, 26 Aug. 2025
Definition of heartlessly
Adverb
  • The department was known to operate callously, firing people by email or locking them out of buildings.
    — Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 10 June 2026
  • Altman accused of making ChatGPT unsafe The lawsuit joins prior suits accusing Altman of callously deploying AI systems without regard for user safety.
    — Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 1 June 2026
Definition of callously
Adverb
  • Kahlo vibrantly and unsparingly depicted herself and events from her life, which was upended by a bus accident at 18.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 30 Nov. 2025
  • Kahlo vibrantly and unsparingly depicted herself and events from her life, which was upended by a bus accident at 18.
    — Hannah Schoenbaum, Fortune, 24 Nov. 2025
Definition of unsparingly
Adverb
  • Instead, the Philippine independence movement was brutally suppressed.
    — Ron Chernow, The Atlantic, 2 July 2026
  • On a brutally hot afternoon at MetLife Stadium, the site of the World Cup final in July 19, France outshot Sweden 25-7, including 15-3 in the first half.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 1 July 2026
Definition of brutally
Adverb
  • For her next project, she’s headed as far from there as humanly (or inhumanly) possible.
    — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 24 June 2026
Definition of inhumanly

Browse Nearby Words

merciless
mercilessly
mercilessness
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Mercilessly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mercilessly. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of gambol

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All