Heartlessness

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈhɑːtlɪsnəs/

Definitions

1. A state characterized by an absence of compassion indicates a severe emotional coldness and a disregard for others' feelings
2. The quality of lacking empathy suggests a brutal indifference, signifying a heart devoid of warmth and kindness
3. The condition marked by a lack of empathy reveals a deep emotional void and signifies a callous disregard for the feelings of others

Etymology: "Heartlessness" is a straightforward formation: the adjective "heartless" with the suffix "-ness", which turns an adjective into a noun for a state or quality. "Heartless" itself is the older building block, made from "heart" plus "-less", a suffix meaning "without". So the word literally describes the condition of being without a heart, a figurative sense that has been in English for centuries. The suffix does most of the work here. "-ness" descends from Old English "-nes", which was attached to adjectives to create abstract nouns, and it remains productive, so English speakers can form new ones like this at will. The suffix's deeper ancestry reaches back into the Germanic languages, where it marked states and qualities in the same way.

Synonyms: cruelty, callousness, insensitivity, indifference, coldness

Antonyms: compassion, empathy, kindness, warmth, sympathy