Is there an antonym of "ruthless"?
Is there a word that means the opposite of ruthless? I don’t think ruthful is a real word.
Solution 1:
While you can easily choose an antonym of ruthless here, it is worth noting that ruthful was actully a term used in the past:
“Ruth” was a common word in Middle English, first appearing (as “reuthe”) around the 12th century, meaning “pity or compassion,” and in the 13th century we spoke of a person who was kind, charitable, and just generally felt your pain as being “ruthful.” (“Ruthful” has also been used at times to mean “inspiring compassion or pity,” i.e., pathetic, as well as “expressing grief” as in “ruthful weeping,” but these are secondary senses.)
A person who lacked those qualities of kindness and charity, whose only concern was for personal gain and never shed a tear for the victims of his greed, has been, since the early 14th century, known as “ruthless,” literally lacking the quality of “ruth.”
The “ruth” in “ruthful” and “ruthless” is a noun formed on the verb “to rue,” meaning “to feel sorrow or regret” (“And yet … no sooner was alone, Than she for loneliness her promise rued,” 1885), and which is still in wide use today (although perhaps not as much as it should be). Rue,” in turn, came from the Old English “hreowan,” which meant “to afflict with sorrow, pity or regret,” and which was rooted in old Germanic and possibly Norse words. “Rue” is perhaps most often found today in phrases such as “rue the day” (or hour, etc.), meaning, of course, to regret a decisive event which took place at that time (“France, thou shalt rue this houre within this houre,” Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John, 1595).
While “ruthless” is alive and well in popular usage today (and “ruthlessness” is even celebrated as a virtue on Wall Street), the sweet and gentle “ruthful” has almost entirely faded from our collective memory. The Oxford English Dictionary labels the word “archaic,” and its most recent citation for its use in print dates from the early 19th century. A search of Google News today for “ruthful” produces the epitaph “Your search – ruthful – did not match any documents,” which a quick perusal of the grim headlines confirms. It seems that this world could do with a “ruth transfusion” as soon as possible.
(www.word-detective.com)
Solution 2:
To lift an answer from Josh61's clear and ruthful reply, you could well use compassionate
compassion: a strong feeling of sympathy and sadness for the suffering or bad luck of others and a wish to help them:
I was hoping she might show a little compassion.
Cambridge Dictionaries
The Free Dictionary uses "compassion" in its definition of "ruthless":
ruth·less (ro͞oth′lĭs) adj. Having no compassion or pity; merciless: ruthless cruelty; ruthless opportunism.
What I feel is missing from most of the definitions I've read is the sense that to be ruthless, you have to commit the acts which cause suffering (although this is often implied). Here it is, though, in the Macmillan Dictionary
[ruthless:] willing to make other people suffer so that you can achieve your aims.
So ruthless is to be willing to cause suffering and compassionate is to want to relieve suffering.