How to use ruthless in a sentence
36 example sentences · adjective
Ruthless means without pity or compassion; cruel, pitiless. Example: “The most ruthless leaders in history were often ideological ones with utopian visions.”
Examples of ruthless by meaning
adjectiveUncompromising; unrelenting.
- But the ruthless cleaning up of those streets and merciless treatment of gang members have triggered outrage and concern among human rights organizations, which have condemned Cecot as inhumane and unacceptable.2024 November 6, David Culver, Abel Alvarado, Evelio Contreras and Rachel Clarke, “Exclusive: Locking eyes with mass murderers in El...
More sentences with ruthless
- The most ruthless leaders in history were often ideological ones with utopian visions.From the entry ideological
- The ruthless businessman thought little of bribing or eliminating his competitors.From the entry think little of
- He’s too soft for the ruthless world of finance.From the entry soft
- Zendaya’s character is now working as a drug mule for Alamo Brown, a ruthless strip club boss.2026 April 29, Louis Staples, “Tradwives, sugar babies and OnlyFans: Euphoria’s misogyny feels like the manosphere’s wet dream”, in The…. From the entry drug mule
- You'll be joining the war against the Scourge, an alien race of soulless, ruthless automatons.”2024 August 12, Joe Saunders, “The Battle of Zab 9” (1:00 from the start), in Solar Opposites, season 5, episode 9, spoken by Screaming…. From the entry planetfall
- They began with an equaliser that again illustrated how ruthless their attacking play can be.2021 April 29, Jamie Jackson, “Edinson Cavani and Bruno Fernandes help Manchester United hit Roma for six”, in The Guardian. From the entry supremely
- A ruthless, if strategic, expansionary policy was only part of Kautilya's vision for the state.2016, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, published 2017, page 28. From the entry expansionary
- Competition among a pride of cougars is nothing short of ruthless.2010, Roland Verfaillie, The Second Book of Job(s), page 217. From the entry pride
- She is cast as an “extreme liberal” and “ruthless partisan,” out of step with the mainstream.2010 October 9, Mark Leibovich, “Vilified or Not, Pelosi Insists She’s Winning”, in The New York Times, page A1. From the entry bogywoman
- From ruthless gangsters to restless mail order kings, from the Fort Dearborn Massacre to the St.2004, Ted Okuda, Jack Mulqueen, The Golden Age of Chicago Children's Television. From the entry ghostlore
- He was eternally a pilgrim, haunted by a divine nostalgia, and the demon within him was ruthless.1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LIV, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 283. From the entry hither and thither
- Sherman’s memoirs, as literature far superior to Grant’s, create an unforgettable autoportrait of this brilliant, angry, ruthless warrior.2015 July 23, “William T. Vollmann: By the Book”, in New York Times. From the entry autoportrait
- He was apparently ruthless in all his business dealings.'2012, G. M. Malliet, A Fatal Winter, Constable & Robinson, published 2012, →ISBN. From the entry Voldemort
- To be clear, cars are more likely to kill nonbikers; we still live in a world ruled by the ruthless car.2009 March 8, Robert Sullivan, “The Wild Bunch”, in New York Times. From the entry nonbiker
- Ruthless trained killers are just a phone call away.2003, Richard Curtis, Love Actually, spoken by Prime Minister (Hugh Grant). From the entry SAS
- He had shown himself no less ruthless than Stalin.1990, Robert Conquest, “The Foreign Element”, in The Great Terror: A Reassessment, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN; 40th…. From the entry histrionic
- The ruthless practices of the Ontario Film Censor Board are by now the laughing stock of most of the world.1981 February 14, Alexander Wilson, “The New Right Attacks Childhood Sexuality: A Canadian Perspective”, in Gay Community News, volume 8…. From the entry hack
- Ruthless and single-minded, the Roekaar's propaganda describes their intent to drive all alien invaders, both Milky Way and kett, out of the Heleus Cluster.2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Angara: The Roekaar Codex entry. From the entry single-minded
- But it is Varney, with his endless ambition, ruthless cruelty, guileless charm, and heartless romance, who truly stands at the apex of modern vampdom.2013, Dave Thompson, If You Like True Blood...Here Are Over 200 Films, TV Shows, And Other Oddities That You Will Love, page 26. From the entry vampdom
- The latest in the production line of ruthless royal officials, Edward Belknap was cut from Dudley's cloth, a ‘mini-me’ of the most obnoxious variety.2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 324. From the entry mini-me
- However, her cute and breathless girliness was an elaborate cover up for a very clever young woman who was both ambitious and ruthless.2011, Bernardine Kennedy, Shattered Lives. From the entry girliness
- George Bancroft stars as ruthless stock manipulator Jim Bradford, who plays his customers for suckers and laughs all the way to the bank.2010, Hal Erickson, “The Wolf of Wall Street (1929)”, in New York Times: Movies, retrieved 13 Apr 2015. From the entry laugh all the way to the bank
- I have met some women in their forties recently that I could tag as “manizers.” Still, they are not nearly as ruthless as womanizers are.2010, Phil Torcivia, Nick Street, Still a Nice Guy, Phil Torcivia, →ISBN. From the entry manizer
- By the time he was a youngly adult dragon, he had secured a position as the most ruthless and feared bounty hunter in the Realm.2009, Jason DeGray, Absolutely True Retellings: the Saga of Shamus. From the entry youngly
- She had pewter-coloured hair set in a ruthless permanent, a hard beak and large moist eyes with the sympathetic expression of wet stones.1943, Raymond Chandler, The High Window, Penguin, published 2005, page 8. From the entry permanent
- The ruthless and indiscriminate bombings of the defenseless cities in southwest Hupeh has called for extra efforts in the way of extending relief.1942, “REV. HERBERT MEYER, CHINESE MISSIONARY, ASSUMES DUTIES OF PASTOR OF LUTHERAN CHURCH”, in Petaluma Argus-Courier, Petaluma…. From the entry Laifeng
- The Red Roses extended their championship winning record to 29 games, as John Mitchell's ruthless side struck five first-half tries before Assia Khalfaoui's second-half red card.2024 April 27, Alastair Telfer, “England beat France to seal Grand Slam hat-trick”, in BBC Sport. From the entry Red Roses
- His brown eyes were keen and lively, not absolutely unsly but not ruthless or egomaniac, either: nobody could run a museum without at least a sliver of slyness.2014, Bill James, Snatched. From the entry unsly
- They also perpetrate nonviolent crimes like bilking elderly couples out of their life savings and running a business with ruthless disregard for the welfare of the workforce or stakeholders.2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 615. From the entry bilk
- Robin van Persie scored twice as ruthless Arsenal put struggling West Ham to the sword in a match tipped to be Avram Grant's last as Hammers boss.2011 January 15, Kevin Darling, “West Ham 0 - 3 Arsenal”, in BBC. From the entry put to the sword
- Ruthless urban warrior cyclists reclaiming the streets and hurrying to deliver that urgent parcel or meet the immoveable deadline of workplace arrival, add to the mêlée.2010, Andrew Walker, Aaron Kennedy, Discovering the Spirit in the City, →ISBN, page 97. From the entry urban warrior
- Elwood seems at first a typical army scrounger and lurkman with his latest model Mercedes and every creature comfort but he is a ruthless and greedy drug pedlar.1993, The Bulletin - Volume 115, page 87. From the entry scrounger
- He could be as patient as Death, that inchmeal stalker of his prey; he could be as ruthless as the sea, and incredibly generous upon occasion.1901, Maurice Hewlett, The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay. From the entry inchmeal
- Jay Rodriguez headed over and Dani Osvaldo might have done better with only David De Gea to beat and, as Southampton bordered on the profligate, United were far more ruthless.2013 October 19, Ben Smith, BBC Sport. From the entry profligate
- Their ruthless divinities portrayed them as an uncivilized people with extremely low morality by letting these small gods terrorize and horrorize the common people with uncommon sense and vicious brutality.1997, Raji Dabit, War & Peace: Between Israel & Its Neighbors, page 2. From the entry horrorize
Meaning of ruthless
- adjective Without pity or compassion; cruel, pitiless.
- adjective Uncompromising; unrelenting.
Questions about ruthless in a sentence
- How do you use ruthless in a sentence?
- Ruthless is used as an adjective. For example: “The most ruthless leaders in history were often ideological ones with utopian visions.”
- What is a short sentence with ruthless?
- “He had shown himself no less ruthless than Stalin.”
- What does ruthless mean?
- Ruthless means without pity or compassion; cruel, pitiless.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ruthless (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use ruthless in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/ruthless. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
