different between merciless vs leonine

English

Etymology

From Middle English merciles, mercyles, equivalent to mercy +? -less.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m??s?l?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?s?l?s/

Adjective

merciless (comparative more merciless, superlative most merciless)

1. Showing no mercy; cruel and pitiless.

Synonyms

• unmerciful
• cruel
• pitiless
• ruthless

Derived terms

• mercilessly
• mercilessness

Translations

Anagrams

• crimeless

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?li??na??n/

Etymology 1

From Latin le?n?nus (“lion-like”); leo +? -ine.

Alternative forms

• lionine (obsolete)

Adjective

leonine (comparative more leonine, superlative most leonine)

1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a lion.
   • 1887, Thomas Adolphus Trollope, What I Remember, Volume 2, chapter XIV (ebook):

     He [Landor] was a man of somewhat leonine aspect as regards the general appearance and expression of the head and face, which accorded well with the large and massive build of the figure, and to which a superbly curling white beard added not only picturesqueness, but a certain nobility.

Translations

Noun

leonine (plural leonines)

1. (numismatics, historical) A 13th-century coin minted in Europe and used in England as a debased form of the sterling silver penny, outlawed under Edward I.

Etymology 2

Perhaps from Leoninus, a 12th-century canon in Paris, or from Pope Leo II.

Noun

leonine (plural leonines)

1. (poetry) A kind of Latin verse, generally alternate hexameter and pentameter, rhyming at the middle and end.

Anagrams

• Noeline

Italian

Adjective

leonine

1. feminine plural of leonino

Latin

Adjective

le?n?ne

1. vocative masculine singular of le?n?nus