thankless
16
6.5
- adjective
- /ˈθæŋkləs/
:
ingrato
- It is a thankless and difficult job.
- thankless job
- thankless task
It's a, it's a very time consuming and thankless and sometimes dismal activity.
- It's a, it's a very time consuming and thankless and sometimes dismal activity.
- You know leadership is lonely, very often thankless, very often unfair.
- Now I've been drafted into this thankless task.
- Caregiving for a narcissist ranks up there as one of the most thankless tasks in the world.
- A lot of unpaid labor and thankless labor.
- So that's one I will say coaching for some people, good coaches, it's a thankless it's a it can be thankless.
- Editing work is pretty thankless From, from my experience of doing academic editing work and and editing Stoicism today.
Examples
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He accepted the thankless role of organizing the event, knowing few would appreciate his hard work.
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It's frustrating and thankless and will make you question nearly every decision.
Blog text (5) -
You know, they say this is a thankless job.
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Believe me, it's a thankless job.
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Being chief could be a thankless job.
Academic text (2004) -
Teaching can be a thankless job, but so can being a student.
Blog text (8) -
What I want to point out is that it's a tough, thankless, lonely job.
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We all salute you for taking on a thankless task.
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Being a school board member is a thankless task now because it is all about dealing with budget cuts.
Blog text (27) -
And as long as we're talking about jobs and responsibilities, it's the often thankless job of PR directors.
Blog text (16)
Synonyms
15
4.7
Not valued or thanked for what you do
12
3.7
Less good than you expected and leaving you disappointed
4
4.0
Not getting anything for work or effort
1
7.0
Not seen as valuable or appreciated
1
5.2
People do not give it enough praise or thanks
Not giving pleasure or reward
Work that does not pay or make a profit
Antonyms
Compounds
How Rewarding
Surface Forms
Morphology
thankless = thank (semi-transparent) = thank + less
Formed from 'thank' + '-less' (without thanks), but applied metaphorically to tasks ('unlikely to be appreciated or rewarded'), which may not be fully obvious to some learners.
Etymology
Thankless comes from the parts thank (meaning 'thanks') and -less (meaning 'without'), the same idea you see in careless. So a thankless task is a job that is 'without thanks' and is unlikely to be appreciated or rewarded.