childless

English

Etymology

From Middle English childles; equivalent to child +‎ -less.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Adjective

childless (not comparable)

1. Not having any children.
   • 1899, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter I, in The Sleeper Awakes‎^[1]:

     I am a lone wolf, a solitary man, wandering through a world in which I have no part. I am wifeless—childless—who is it speaks of the childless as the dead twigs on the tree of life?

Synonyms

• babyless, childrenless, kidless, offspringless

Coordinate terms

• child-free

Derived terms

• childlessness

Translations

not having any children

• Azerbaijani: sonsuz (az), övladsız, oğul-uşaqsız
• Belarusian: бяздзе́тны (bjazdzjétny)
• Bulgarian: безде́тен (bezdéten)
• Catalan: sense fills
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 沒有兒女的／没有儿女的 (méiyǒu érnǚ de), 無子女的／无子女的 (wúzǐnǚ de), 無兒無女的／无儿无女的 (wú'érwúnǚ de)

• Czech: bezdětný (cs)
• Danish: barnløs (da)
• Dutch: kinderloos (nl)
• Esperanto: seninfana
• Finnish: lapseton (fi)
• French: sans enfants
• Galician: sen fillos
• German: kinderlos (de)
• Gothic: 𐌿𐌽𐌱𐌰𐍂𐌽𐌰𐌷𐍃 (unbarnahs)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἄτεκνος (áteknos), ἄπαις (ápais)

• Hungarian: gyermektelen (hu)
• Interlingua: sin infantes
• Irish: gan chlann, gan chúram, gan leanbh
• Japanese: 子供のいない (こどものいない, kodomo no inai)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: bêzarok (ku)

• Lithuanian: bevaikis
• Macedonian: бездетен (bezdeten)
• Maori: huatea, huamutu
• Middle English: childles, barnles
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: barnløs, barnlaus

  Nynorsk: barnlaus

• Old English: bearnlēas
• Polish: bezdzietny (pl), bezpotomny (pl)
• Portuguese: sem filhos
• Russian: безде́тный (ru) (bezdétnyj)
• Slovak: bezdetný
• Spanish: sin hijos
• Swahili: gumba (sw)
• Swedish: barnlös (sv)
• Turkish: çocuksuz (tr)
• Ukrainian: безді́тний (uk) (bezdítnyj)