-less

See also:less

English

Alternative forms

• -lesse(obsolete)

Etymology

FromMiddle English-les,-leas,fromOld English-lēas(“-less”)(comparelēas(“devoid of, loose from, false”)), fromProto-West Germanic*-laus,fromProto-Germanic*-lausaz,from*lausaz(“loose”).(Not related toless,which derives from*laisiz,*laisizô.) Cognate withScots-less,West Frisian-leas,Saterland Frisian-loos,Dutch-loos(“-less”),Low German-los,German-los,Danish-løs,Swedish-lös,Icelandic-laus.More atlease(“false”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):/ləs/,/lɪs/

• Audio(Southern England):

  (file)

Suffix

-less

1. Lacking(something);without(something). Added usually to a noun to form an adjective signifying a lack of that noun.
   • 2013September-October,Henry Petroski,“The Evolution of Eyeglasses”,inAmerican 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 framelessmagnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

Usage notes

• Adjectives formed using-lessoften form nouns by the addition of-ness(e.g.helplessness), but generally do not form nouns by the addition of other noun-forming endings.
• A notable exception to the usual usage of this suffix is thatdoubtlessis usually an adverb, rather than an adjective.

Synonyms

• (lacking):an-,ex-,-free

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of“lacking”):-ed,-y,-some(having in considerable amount),-ful(having in abundance)

Derived terms

English terms suffixed with -less

Translations

lacking

• Abkhaz:-ыда(-əda)
• Acehnese:hana
• Afar:sinni
• Afrikaans:ont-
• Albanian:pa(sq)
• Arabic:بِلَا(bilā),غَيْر...(ar)(ḡayr...)
• Armenian:ան-(an-)
• Azerbaijani:-siz
• Basque:-gabe
• Belarusian:без-(bjez-)
• Bengali:-হীন(bn)(-hin)
• Bulgarian:без(bg)(bez)
• Catalan:sense(ca)
• Cebuano:walay
• Chinese:

  Mandarin:Vô -／Vô -(zh)(wú-)

• Chuvash:-сӗр(-sĕr)
• Czech:bez-(cs)
• Danish:-løs(da)
• Dutch:-loos(nl),zonder(nl)
• Esperanto:sen-(eo)
• Estonian:-ta,-tu
• Faroese:-leysur
• Finnish:-ton(fi),-tön(fi)
• French:sans...(fr)
• Galician:sen(gl)
• Georgian:უ-(u-),უ- -ო(u- -o),არა-(ara-)
• German:-los(de)
• Greek:α-(el)(a-),αν-(el)(an-)
• Gujarati:-હીન(-hīn)
• Haitian Creole:e-
• Hausa:mara(ha),marasa
• Hebrew:אל(he)('ál-)
• Hindi:काटा दिया(kāṭā diyā)
• Hungarian:-talan(hu)/-telen(hu),-atlan(hu)/-etlen(hu),-tlan(hu)/-tlen(hu),-hatatlan(hu)/-hetetlen(hu),mentes(hu),nélküli(hu)
• Iban:nadai
• Icelandic:-laus,-vana
• Ido:sen-
• Igbo:enweghị
• Indonesian:nir-
• Irish:gan(ga)
• Italian:senza(it),in-(it),s-(it),dis-(it)
• Japanese:- vô し(ja)(-なし, -nashi),Vô -(ja)(む-, mu-),-ない(ja)(-nai),Thấp -(てい-, tei-)
• Kannada:-ವಿಲ್ಲದ(-villada)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish:bê-(ku)

• Kyrgyz:-сыз(-sız)
• Lao:ບໍ່ມີ(bǭ mī)
• Latin:sine(la),in-,ne-,se-
• Latvian:bez
• Lithuanian:be-
• Luo:onge
• Macedonian:без-(bez-)
• Malay:nir-,nis-(preceding vowels and letters k, t and c)
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari:-дыме(-dyme)

• Mongolian:-гүй(-güj)
• Nepali:-न-(-na-)
• Norwegian:-løs(no)
• Papiamentu:sin
• Persian:(prefix)بیـ(bi-)
• Polish:bez-(pl)
• Portuguese:sem(pt),des-(pt)
• Punjabi:-ਹੀਨ(-hīn)
• Romani:bi-
• Romanian:fără(ro)
• Russian:без(ъ)-(ru)(bez(ʺ)-)/бес(ъ)-(ru)(bes(ʺ)-)
• Scottish Gaelic:gun
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic:без-

  Roman:bez-

• Slovak:bez-
• Slovene:brez(sl)
• Spanish:sin(es),des-(es)
• Swahili:bila(sw)
• Swedish:-lös(sv)
• Tagalog:pugot ang,walang
• Telugu:-లేని(-lēni)
• Turkish:-siz(tr),-sız(tr),-suz(tr),-süz(tr)
• Udmurt:-тэм(-tem)
• Ukrainian:без-(uk)(bez-)
• Venda:zwisina,asina
• Vietnamese:cây đinh không
• Welsh:di-(cy),di
• West Frisian:-leas
• Yiddish:־לאָז(-loz)
• Yoruba:àìní

Anagrams

• ELSS,SELs,SLEs

Scots

Etymology

FromMiddle English-les,fromOld English-lēas(“-less”).

Suffix

-less

1. lacking;without.Added usually to a noun to form an adjective signifying a lack of that noun.