CALLOUSNESS

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does callousness mean? 

• CALLOUSNESS (noun)
  The noun CALLOUSNESS has 1 sense:

1. devoid of passion or feeling; hardheartedness

  Familiarity information: CALLOUSNESS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CALLOUSNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Devoid of passion or feeling; hardheartedness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

callosity; callousness; hardness; insensibility; unfeelingness

Hypernyms ("callousness" is a kind of...):

insensitiveness; insensitivity (the inability to respond to affective changes in your interpersonal environment)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "callousness"):

dullness (lack of sensibility)

Derivation:

callous (emotionally hardened)

 Context examples 

A cruel thing happened just before supper, indicative of the callousness and brutishness of these men.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He was used to the harsh callousness of factory girls and working women.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It is useless, and the time awfully fails me, to prolong this description; no one has ever suffered such torments, let that suffice; and yet even to these, habit brought—no, not alleviation—but a certain callousness of soul, a certain acquiescence of despair; and my punishment might have gone on for years, but for the last calamity which has now fallen, and which has finally severed me from my own face and nature.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The callousness of these men, to whom industrial organization gave control of the lives of other men, was appalling.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)