What does coldhearted mean?
"Coldhearted" is an adjective describing someone who shows little or no sympathy, kindness, or compassion for other people — someone who can witness suffering without being moved by it. It is formed from "cold," long a metaphor for emotional remoteness, joined to "hearted" from "heart," English's oldest symbol of feeling. The term is inherently pejorative: calling a person, a decision, or a policy coldhearted condemns it as cruelly indifferent rather than merely strict or practical. Typical contexts include criticism of unfeeling treatment of family members, employees, or the vulnerable. Writers commonly use the hyphenated variant "cold-hearted," which is equally standard. Related forms include the adverb "coldheartedly" and the noun "coldheartedness." Because it names a moral failing rather than a mood, "coldhearted" differs from near-neighbors like "cold-blooded," which suggests premeditated ruthlessness, and it stands opposed to words such as "compassionate," "kindhearted," and "warm-hearted."
adjectiveLacking in sympathy, compassion, or affection for others; deliberately unfeeling or indifferent to people's suffering.
- Lacking sympathy, kindness, or compassion toward others; unfeelingly harsh.
"She was stunned by his coldhearted refusal to even visit his ailing mother in hospital."
"It seemed coldhearted to lay off the entire team just before the holidays."
"The novel's coldhearted aristocrat refuses to acknowledge his own children."
The word pairs English's oldest feeling-word — 'heart,' unchanged since Old English — with its chilliest weather-word to name cruelty in a single compound.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of coldhearted
The compound joins "cold," from Old English cald/ceald, used figuratively for lack of emotion since medieval times, with "hearted," from "heart" (Old English heorte), the traditional seat of feeling. Compound adjectives like "cold-hearted" arose naturally in Middle and Early Modern English alongside parallel forms such as "kind-hearted" and "hard-hearted." Germanic languages share the underlying root: Dutch hart and German Herz are cognates of "heart." The exact date of first attestation is uncertain, but the compound has been in continuous literary use for several centuries.
Related word forms
How coldhearted is actually used
"Coldhearted" is often written as the hyphenated "cold-hearted," and both forms are standard; the closed form is common in American publishing. The word carries strongly negative connotation and is almost always used critically of a person's character or an action.
Easily confused with coldhearted
"Coldhearted" describes emotional unkindness toward people; "cold-blooded" describes actions done without emotion, especially deliberate killing, or animals whose body temperature varies with their surroundings.