as in oppressiveness
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for hardhandedness
Noun
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The result is a disturbing chiasmus: the whimsy of malevolence, the malevolence of whimsy.—
Eugenie Brinkema,
ARTnews.com,
14 June 2026 -
The rise of Santa Muerte The other folk saint tied to narco culture is Santa Muerte, whose Grim Reaper appearance and relative obscurity prompt assumptions of malevolence.—
Marc Ramirez,
USA Today,
7 June 2026
Noun
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Then there is the harshness of space.—
Sven Bilén,
The Conversation,
16 June 2026
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As with many spills and stains, baking soda offers a mild stain-lifting power without the harshness of stronger cleaners.—
Jessica Safavimehr,
Southern Living,
12 June 2026
Noun
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Sometimes the irony turns bitter and, with a typically Eastern European sensibility, highlights the paradoxes of institutions, as well as the madness and meanness born from the pursuit and preservation of power.—
Zac Ntim,
Deadline,
8 June 2026
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After 1965, when African Americans’ right to vote was constitutionally recognized, the meanness continued.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
29 May 2026
Noun
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His Cyrano is the play’s hero, even if the character’s psychological limitations are as much a factor in the story as the machinations of De Guiche, whose malignity is sent up in Nathanson’s flamboyantly comic turn.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Sep. 2024
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For a decade, the central drama of Trumpism has concerned the Republican élites who continued to support him—the story has been about their malignity, or opportunism, or willful moral blindness.—
Benjamin Wallace-Wells,
The New Yorker,
16 Sep. 2023
Noun
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Trump’s narcissistic obsession with the place, together with the miasmic hatefulness of his words and actions, has caused artists to flee en masse.—
Alex Ross,
New Yorker,
19 Mar. 2026
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Comment sections have always attracted hatefulness and resentment; these ones just happen to encourage it more explicitly.—
Rebecca Jennings,
Vulture,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The guy was a sleaze, but there’s a pretty big gap between sleaziness and murderousness.—
Sophie Brookover,
Vulture,
12 Dec. 2025
Noun
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The findings can’t be extrapolated to the real world — the scenarios were extreme, with the regimes often facing first strikes or annihilation — but revealed AIs’ skill at strategic reasoning, as well as a certain bloodthirstiness.—
Tom Chivers,
semafor.com,
4 Mar. 2026
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“Hardhandedness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hardhandedness. Accessed 20 Jun. 2026.
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