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Webster 1913 Edition

-less

-less

(-lĕs)
suff.
[AS.
leás
loose, false; akin to OS.
lōs
loose, false, D.
los
loose,
loos
false, sly, G.
los
loose, Icel.
lauss
loose, vacant, Goth.
laus
empty, vain, and also to E.
loose
,
lose
. √127. See
Lose
, and cf.
Loose
,
Leasing
.]
A privative adjective suffix, denoting without, destitute of, not having; as witless, childless, fatherless.

Definition 2024

-less

-less

See also: less

English

Suffix

-less

  1. Lacking (something); without (something).
    • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:
      The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

Usage notes

  • Adjectives formed using -less often form nouns by the addition of -ness (-lessness), but generally do not form nouns by the addition of other noun-forming endings. The suffix -lessness means "absence".

Antonyms

Derived terms

<a class='CategoryTreeLabel CategoryTreeLabelNs14 CategoryTreeLabelCategory' href='/wiki/Category:English_words_suffixed_with_-less'>English words suffixed with -less</a>

Translations

Etymology

From Middle English -les, -leas, from Old English -lēas ‎(“-less”), from lēas ‎(“devoid of, loose from, false”), from Proto-Germanic *lausaz ‎(“loose”). (Not related to less, which derives from *laisiz, *laisizô.) Cognate with Scots -less, West Frisian -leas, Saterland Frisian -loos, Dutch -loos ‎(“-less”), Low German -los, German los, -los, Swedish -lös, Icelandic -laus. More at lease ‎(“false”).

Pronunciation

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