Alternative forms
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Etymology
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From Middle English -les , -leas , from Old English -lēas ( “ -less ” ) , from lēas ( “ devoid of, loose from, false ” ) , from Proto-West Germanic *laus , 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 , Danish -løs , Swedish -lös , Icelandic -laus . More at lease ( “ false ” ) .
Pronunciation
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IPA (key ) : /ləs/ , /lɪs/
Audio (Southern England) (file )
-less
Lacking (something); without (something). Added usually to a noun to form an adjective signifying a lack of that noun.
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
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Adjectives formed using -less often 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 that doubtless is usually an adverb, rather than an adjective.
Synonyms
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Antonyms
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(antonym(s) of " lacking" ): -ed , -y , -some (having in considerable amount), -ful (having in abundance)
Derived terms
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Translations
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lacking
Afrikaans: ont-
Albanian: pa (sq)
Arabic: بِلَا ( bilā ) , غَيْر ... (ar) ( ḡayr ... )
Armenian: ան- ( an- )
Azerbaijani: -siz
Basque: -gabe
Belarusian: без- ( bjez- )
Bengali: -হীন ( -hin )
Bulgarian: без (bg) ( bez )
Catalan: sense (ca)
Cebuano: walay
Chinese:
Mandarin: 無- / 无- (zh) ( wú- )
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-
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)
Icelandic: -laus , -vana
Ido: sen-
Igbo: enweghị
Indonesian: nir-
Irish: gan (ga)
Italian: senza (it) , in- (it) , s- (it) , dis- (it)
Japanese: -無し (ja) ( -なし, -nashi ) , 無- (ja) ( む-, mu- ) , -ない (ja) ( -nai ) , 低- ( 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-
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)
Persian: ( prefix ) بی (fa) ( bi- )
Polish: bez- (pl)
Portuguese: sem (pt) , des- (pt)
Punjabi: -ਹੀਨ ( -hīn )
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
Ukrainian: без- (uk) ( bez- )
Vietnamese: cây đinh không
Welsh: di- (cy) , di
West Frisian: -leas
Yiddish: ־לאָז ( -loz )
Anagrams
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