callousness

English

Etymology

From callous +‎ -ness.

Noun

callousness (usually uncountable, plural callousnesses)

  1. The quality of being callous; emotional hardheartedness or indifference.
    Synonyms: callosity, hardheartedness, insensitivity
    Fred was known for his callousness; local panhandlers had long since learned not to try their sob stories on him.
    • 1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Soul of Laploshka”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 69:
      To have killed Laploshka was one thing; to have kept his beloved money would have argued a callousness of feeling of which I was not capable.
    • 2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR‎[1]:
      "The image of workers who had embraced each other as concrete crushed them — that final act of human kindness in the face of death — shattered my callousness completely."
  2. The quality of having calluses.

Translations

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