tactless
/ˈtaktləs
/adjective
Having or showing a lack of skill and sensitivity in dealing with others or with difficult issues: a tactless remark...
- He's tactless and lacks judgment but he's irresistible just the same.
- Her responses grew more tentative and insecure with each of his outrageously tactless remarks.
- For a prime minister who fought the election on improving public services, such increases look like thoughtless and tactless extravagance.
Synonyms
insensitive, inconsiderate, thoughtless, unthinking, indelicate, undiplomatic, impolitic, indiscreet, unsubtle, clumsy, heavy-handed, graceless, awkward, unpolished, inept, bungling, maladroit, gauche, undiscerning, unsophisticated;
blunt, straightforward, frank, plain-spoken, outspoken, abrupt, precipitate;
gruff, bluff, rough, crude, coarse, speaking as one finds, calling a spade a spade, like a bull in a china shop;
imprudent, injudicious, unwise, foolhardy;
rude, impolite, uncouth, discourteous, crass, tasteless, impertinent, disrespectful, ungentlemanly, unladylike, boorish, uncivilized, uncivil;
unkind, uncaring, uncalled for, callous, hurtful, thick-skinned, uncharitable, cruel
Derivatives
tactlessly
/ adverb ...- Try not to get obnoxiously and tactlessly drunk.
- It would be tactlessly trite and simplistic to say that because Camara has suffered personally then he could not be hurt professionally.
- Behaving so aggressively and tactlessly, making demands, must have a reason.
tactlessness
/ noun ...- She drives everyone nuts with her tactlessness.
- I cringed at my tactlessness and hoped he wouldn't take offense.
- Mary Queen of Scots was recorded as very tall and beautiful but with a fiery temperament that often caused her to act on impulse and brought forth criticisms of tactlessness.