Synonym Chooser

How is the word faithless different from other adjectives like it?

Some common synonyms of faithless are disloyal, false, perfidious, traitorous, and treacherous. While all these words mean "untrue to what should command one's fidelity or allegiance," faithless applies to any failure to keep a promise or pledge or any breach of allegiance or loyalty.

faithless allies

When can disloyal be used instead of faithless?

The synonyms disloyal and faithless are sometimes interchangeable, but disloyal implies a lack of complete faithfulness to a friend, cause, leader, or country.

disloyal to their country

When could false be used to replace faithless?

In some situations, the words false and faithless are roughly equivalent. However, false stresses the fact of failing to be true in any manner ranging from fickleness to cold treachery.

betrayed by false friends

How do perfidious and faithless relate to one another?

Perfidious adds to faithless the implication of an incapacity for fidelity or reliability.

a perfidious double-crosser

When is traitorous a more appropriate choice than faithless?

While the synonyms traitorous and faithless are close in meaning, traitorous implies either actual treason or a serious betrayal of trust.

traitorous acts punishable by death

When might treacherous be a better fit than faithless?

The meanings of treacherous and faithless largely overlap; however, treacherous implies readiness to betray trust or confidence.

a treacherous adviser

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of faithless Since Biden is no longer in the running, they won't be considered faithless. Kaleigh Rogers, ABC News, 23 July 2024 Nellore admits to being of faithless background yet criticizes people of faith. Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 8 Mar. 2024 Image In the Patricia Highsmith novel and the subsequent Hitchcock movie that introduced this intriguing plot to the public, the would-be victims are mere annoyances — a critical father, a faithless wife. Sarah Lyall, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2024 In Her Car follows Lydia, a psychologist with anxiety issues on her way to Kharkiv to divorce her faithless husband who spots a young woman at a bus station and decides to give a young woman a lift. Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Feb. 2024 See all Example Sentences for faithless 
Recent Examples of Synonyms for faithless
Adjective
  • The blame for this terrifying scenario, McCarthy declared, rested with traitorous federal employees, who had sold their country out and had to be purged from its service.
    Made by History, TIME, 9 Feb. 2025
  • Guinevere, usually relegated to the thankless role of traitorous wife, acts here as Arthur’s beloved confidante.
    Elizabeth Hand, Washington Post, 16 July 2024
Adjective
  • The surge is supplementing an unreliable grid beset by aging infrastructure and a fuel shortage.
    Troy Aidan Sambajon, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Feb. 2025
  • Read: The real cost of knowledge The mess that this creates, in the form of unreliable research, can to some extent be cleaned up after publication.
    Adam Marcus, The Atlantic, 13 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • There’s a lot of false symbolism and false activism, and there’s a lot of people who really capitalize on this half-baked symbolism without deliverables.
    Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 11 Feb. 2025
  • In the Burrow case, the suspects allegedly carried bogus ID cards purportedly from Argentina and other countries, and bearing false names, according to the affidavit.
    Bill Chappell, NPR, 11 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Green asked the reporter, who alleged that the singer was unfaithful to his former fiancée.
    Hannah Sacks, People.com, 6 Feb. 2025
  • Serially bankrupt and unfaithful, Trump sought prayers from both Catholic and protestant religious dignitaries who condemn such things among their faithful and wink at them from Trump.
    David Mastio, The Mercury News, 22 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Being a woman on this show has always been more treacherous than Miss Patricia’s one loop around the block in her Rolls-Royce.
    Brian Moylan, Vulture, 6 Feb. 2025
  • Snowfall is expected to accumulate between 6 and 12 inches in eastern parts of the state, with Omaha and Lincoln experiencing treacherous conditions.
    Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 5 Feb. 2025

Thesaurus Entries Near faithless

Cite this Entry

“Faithless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/faithless. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on faithless

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