-less

See also: less

English

Alternative forms

• -lesse (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English -les, -leas, from Old English -lēas (“-less”) (compare lēas (“devoid of, loose from, false”)), from Proto-West Germanic *-laus, from Proto-Germanic *-lausaz, from *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

• 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.
   • 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 (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

• (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: 無-／无- (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: -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-
• 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: ti ko ni

Anagrams

• ELSS, SELs, SLEs

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English -les, from Old English -lēas (“-less”).

Suffix

-less

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