1
as in excessive
going beyond a normal or acceptable limit in degree or amount
she went into an unmerciful level of detail about her latest health problems
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in ruthless
having or showing a lack of sympathy or tender feelings
the critics were unmerciful in their assessments of the young actress's performance
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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 unmerciful
By that time, the internet blew up over Parker and Stone’s unmerciful comedic mockery of Trump.
—
Tim Lammers,
Forbes.com,
30 July 2025
The result was unmerciful but gloriously funny, especially when Christine Baranski‘s liberal Diane Lockhart hallucinated news reports about Trump keeping a potbellied pig in the White House map room.
—
Lynette Rice,
Deadline,
20 May 2025
The drought is a source of mockery towards RCB, with opposition fans unmerciful in their scorn towards them and particularly Kohli.
—
Tristan Lavalette,
Forbes,
20 Mar. 2025
Yet viewers admire Oz’s aptitude to survive, his unmerciful resolve.
—
Jason Parham,
WIRED,
26 Dec. 2024
His take on Prince Philip is both humanizing and unmerciful, cutting to the bone of a man portrayed in contradictory terms — petulant yet statesmanlike, intensely ambitious yet ineffectual, relatable one minute and contemptible the next.
—
Will Harris,
EW.com,
30 July 2024
In Nazi ideology, descent was destiny—inescapable, unmerciful, and total.
—
Fintan O’Toole,
The New York Review of Books,
20 July 2023
Tim Lammers,
Forbes.com,
30 July 2025
The result was unmerciful but gloriously funny, especially when Christine Baranski‘s liberal Diane Lockhart hallucinated news reports about Trump keeping a potbellied pig in the White House map room.
—
Lynette Rice,
Deadline,
20 May 2025
The drought is a source of mockery towards RCB, with opposition fans unmerciful in their scorn towards them and particularly Kohli.
—
Tristan Lavalette,
Forbes,
20 Mar. 2025
Yet viewers admire Oz’s aptitude to survive, his unmerciful resolve.
—
Jason Parham,
WIRED,
26 Dec. 2024
His take on Prince Philip is both humanizing and unmerciful, cutting to the bone of a man portrayed in contradictory terms — petulant yet statesmanlike, intensely ambitious yet ineffectual, relatable one minute and contemptible the next.
—
Will Harris,
EW.com,
30 July 2024
In Nazi ideology, descent was destiny—inescapable, unmerciful, and total.
—
Fintan O’Toole,
The New York Review of Books,
20 July 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unmerciful
Adjective
-
Although not always the case, excessive heat warnings usually coincide with heat waves.
-
This does not diminish concerns about excessive screen time or the value of reducing distractions during the school day.
Adjective
-
Natural selection is usually ruthless about weeding out traits with no function.
-
Supergirl builds to a final showdown with Krem of the Yellow Hills, the ruthless Brigands leader who murdered Ruthye’s family and poisoned Krypto early in the film.
Adjective
-
The National Weather Service said cool air from the north will push the heat dome, responsible for a heat wave that started midweek, south and west in the coming days, relieving some of the most extreme temperatures in the Northeast.
-
The laminate reinforces the glass to create a shatter-resistant barrier, preventing shards of glass from flying out during extreme weather.
Adjective
-
The poem that precedes it, the Iliad, is a cruel and beautiful work, the ultimate story of war; the Odyssey has its warlike passages, but its central energies seem almost commonplace beside the merciless fury of Achilles.
-
Humility is the posture; the standard is merciless.
Adjective
-
For example, Fred Again is absolutely doing insane things with the MPC Lives.
-
That dwarfs anything the powerhouse Spain teams did in the early 2010s, when the team was known for stringing together an insane number of passes that led to a goal.
Adjective
-
Oscar Wilde, for example, reposes beneath a hulking deity whose iconoclastic castration, back in 1961, did little to restrain pilgrims seeking to smear red lips across his stony physique.
-
Instead of looking like a sleek urban loft, the room can quickly start to feel cold, stony, and impersonal.
Adjective
-
That marks a steep decline of 74% from the movie's already-poor $37 million debut, a much bigger drop than is typical for a summer superhero film.
-
In the tourney, Zellers had five goals and three assists in five games and made a steep climb up the depth chart.
Adjective
-
There is always a suspension of disbelief required in luxury fashion, as designers use the runway to communicate their most extravagant, pie-in-the-sky vision of what clothes could be.
-
Davis was known to the world for his extravagant style and lavish Grammy parties.
Cite this Entry
“Unmerciful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unmerciful. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
