Ruthful vs Ruthless - What's the difference?
ruthful | ruthless |
Full of sorrow; sorrowful; woeful; rueful.
Causing pity; piteous.
* c.1588-1593 , , Act 5, Scene 1,
* 1808 , , Canto Fourth,
Full of ruth or pity; merciful; compassionate.
* 1898 , , Volume 7,
Without pity or compassion; cruel, pitiless.
* 1725 , , Volume I, Bernard Lintot,
Ruthless is a antonym of ruthful.
As adjectives the difference between ruthful and ruthless
is that ruthful is full of sorrow; sorrowful; woeful; rueful while ruthless is without pity or compassion; cruel, pitiless.ruthful
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- An if it please thee! why, assure thee, Lucius, / 'Twill vex thy soul to hear what I shall speak; / For I must talk of murders, rapes, and massacres, / Acts of black night, abominable deeds, / Complots of mischief, treason, villainies, / Ruthful to hear, yet piteously perform'd:
- ‘When last this ruthful month was come, / And in Linlithgow’s holy dome / The King, as wont, was praying;
- Then he bestowed robes of honour on the nurses wet and dry and said to them, "Be ye ruthful over them and rear them after the goodliest fashion."
Usage notes
* (causing pity) Unlike the other senses, which describe the person acting or the motivation behind an act, this sense is used to describe the effect of an action or circumstance. Thus, it is easily confused with the complementary term ruthless: a ruthless'' person (one lacking pity) may perform acts or bring about circumstances which are ''ruthful (cause or induce feelings of pity).Synonyms
* (full of ruth) (l), (l)Antonyms
* (full of ruth) (l)Derived terms
* (l) * (l)Anagrams
*ruthless
English
Adjective
(wikipedia ruthless) (en adjective)page 10:
- At length their rage the ho?tile Pow’rs re?train, / All but the ruthle?s Monarch of the Main.
