What's the difference between merciful and merciless?

Merciful


Definition:

  • (a.) Full of mercy; having or exercising mercy; disposed to pity and spare offenders; unwilling to punish.
  • (a.) Unwilling to give pain; compassionate.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The law and justice minister, Anisul Huq, said the 73-year-old leader was hanged after he refused to seek mercy from the country’s president.
  • (2) But if May rushes headlong into a panicked triggering of article 50 without a clear idea of what she wants out of negotiations, she will have left us at the mercy of 27 countries who have heard little but table-thumping and empty threats from ministers.
  • (3) He called for care for the environment to be added to the seven spiritual works of mercy outlined in the Gospel that the faithful are asked to perform throughout the pope’s year of mercy in 2016.
  • (4) But Ruby Tweedie, another local resident, said: "There have been so many doubts about his guilt that it's only fair that the man, who has only a few months to live, should be shown mercy."
  • (5) Constant ribbing about his private life was compromising Deayton's position as the show's "holier-than-thou" host, who showed no mercy towards politicians or celebrities caught in a similar position, the corporation added.
  • (6) The 70-year-old describes a life of comfortable detachment from mainstream society, but with long periods in which he and his 74-year-old wife, Shin-yeol, are at the mercy of the elements.
  • (7) We're kind of at Mother Nature's mercy at this point," said Tom Kruschke, another fire department spokesman .
  • (8) Without him, we were at the mercy of increasingly nervous investors, and our Hollywood film-making future hung in the balance.
  • (9) Students of privatisation over the years have learnt to be grateful for small mercies.
  • (10) The mayor is a good person, but no one invited him, certainly not officially … The pope was furious.” While the prank provided fodder to critics of the mayor, it also underscored a more serious issue between the Vatican and Rome just a few months ahead of the church’s jubilee year of mercy, which begins on 8 December.
  • (11) The only mercy was they would have known little about it.
  • (12) After Hollande spent two hours on French radio in a patent relaunch of his presidency, a film producer announced that a biopic of Trierweiler’s revenge memoir, Merci Pour Ce Moment (Thank You For This Moment), is now in the works.
  • (13) Hunt replied: "Merci hopefully when consultation over we can have coffee like old days!"
  • (14) "The legal system has lost all sense of mercy and justice and it has been replaced with punitiveness and vindictiveness," Stinebrickner-Kauffman told Mail Online .
  • (15) If Whittingdale had any honour, any mercy, and any basic human decency, he would murder David Attenborough himself today, in his bed, to spare him any further suffering.
  • (16) It was not something that was talked about.” Thomson added: “It was mercifully quick and I remember first of all feeling surprise, then fear, then horror as I realised I quite simply couldn’t escape – because he was stronger than me, and there was no sense even initially of any sexual desire from him, which I suppose, looking back, again I find odd.” The MP said she had felt “absolutely numbed” and ashamed but told no one about the incident.
  • (17) Several survivors and family members of the victims who were flown to the US testified this week , and one cursed Bales for attacking villagers as some slept and others screamed for mercy.
  • (18) This meant that if the rebels started abusing people, the Misca would withdraw, leaving the civilian population at their mercy.
  • (19) Sitting in a side street listening to the sound of loud blasts and gunfire emanating from Nariman House, Rakash Bhaud, the local leader of the far-right Hindu party Shiv Sena, blamed the central government for the failures that, he said, had left them at the mercy of Pakistan-backed terrorists.
  • (20) More emphasis on mercy is needed in this case, surely, and less on killing.

Merciless


Definition:

  • (a.) Destitute of mercy; cruel; unsparing; -- said of animate beings, and also, figuratively, of things; as, a merciless tyrant; merciless waves.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Sri Lanka mounted a merciless final assault on the Tamil Tiger insurgency in 2009 .
  • (2) And up there, looming over it all is Zynga, social gaming's Ming the Merciless.
  • (3) He attacked, battened down the hatches on his serve and was merciless in the tie-break, levelling the match with a well-placed volley.
  • (4) Pyongyang reacted angrily when The Interview’s plot first became public and promised a “resolute and merciless” response if it went ahead.
  • (5) Where we already have the electoral numbers, our political vengeance has been merciless against the GOP; witness California after its electoral dalliance with anti-immigrant policies or Mitt Romney’s disastrous 2012 campaign .
  • (6) Gerrard had been mercilessly taunted again by Chelsea’s supporters and he had played as if determined to turn the volume down.
  • (7) But, despite such incidents, many will see the latest episode as some sort of karmic revenge for Letterman's often merciless take on the moral lapses of others.
  • (8) The Stoke supporters mercilessly booed the Welshman’s every touch, presumably for his reluctance to accept Ryan Shawcross’ apology for breaking his leg at the Britannia Stadium six years ago, and there was also some unsavoury and shameful chanting by a section of the home fans, who sang: “Aaron Ramsey, he walks with a limp”.
  • (9) Celeb bombed, and the critics were merciless, so I had wondered if that was why Enfield withdrew from our screens.
  • (10) It was the fasting month of Ramadan and as mercilessly hot as a desert city in high summer could be.
  • (11) Like some of those R-rated comedies that go down very well in the States, they don’t work here and don’t get released.” The Interview stars Rogen and James Franco as two journalists charged with carrying out the killing of Kim Jong-un, a storyline which prompted North Korean officials to complain to the United Nations in July and prompted state media warnings of “merciless retaliation”.
  • (12) With international lenders at the EU and IMF demanding that Athens step up its austerity drive - or risk losing the funding that is keeping its debt-stricken economy afloat -- President Carolos Papoulias told the visiting delegation: "Up until now, we've been receiving a merciless lashing.
  • (13) I’m afraid you’ve lost my trust.” HSBC chiefs face Margaret Hodge at her most merciless Read more She went on: “I really do think that you should consider your position and you should think about resigning and if not, I think the government should sack you.” Fairhead has been a non-executive director of HSBC since 2004, and was made the chair of the audit and risk committee – which bore responsibility for governance and compliance across the global bank – in May 2007.
  • (14) Always a contrived fiction, this sequence juxtaposes a poignant fantasy of a fully fit presenter with the merciless world of hard news.
  • (15) Remember those embarrassing bills for wisteria clearance at the young Conservative leader’s home amid the expenses debacle of 2009, and how these were lopped away by a merciless assault on the more shameless claims of various knights of the shire?
  • (16) Not even the cameras from the media that were capturing the unfolding scene were enough to deter the circus owner from pulling a gun and mercilessly beating us.
  • (17) Sheng Keyi , meanwhile, turns a mercilessly ironic eye on modern Chinese life, particularly the difficulties faced by women in a hypersexualised culture and the insecure economic life of migrant workers.
  • (18) The brief flurry of liberal street protest in 2011 and 2012 was ruthlessly snuffed out by the Kremlin, and many have suggested that, far from a liberal revolution, the most likely revolt in Russia is the “senseless and merciless” Russian uprising of which Alexander Pushkin wrote.
  • (19) In the 13th century the Cathars put up a strong defence of their beliefs and territory against the merciless persecution meted out by the Albigensian crusade.
  • (20) It’s happening to Christians now right across the Middle East and Africa, and the dangers of not speaking up have been made clear since the Paris attacks, when innocent people were gunned down mercilessly while shopping for food for the Shabbat [Jewish Sabbath].