characterless

English

Etymology

From character +‎ -less.

Adjective

characterless (comparative more characterless, superlative most characterless)

1. Having no distinguishing character or quality.
   • 1855, William Cooper Nell, Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution:

     The great mass of American citizens estimate us, as being a characterless and purposeless people ; and hence we hold up our heads, if at all, against the withering influence of a nation's scorn and contempt.

   • 1944, Emily Carr, “Friction”, in The House of All Sorts:

     The House of All Sorts was new and characterless. It had not yet found itself—and an apartment house takes longer to find itself than do individual private houses.

2. Lacking in or devoid of personality.
   • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:

     The letter within was written in the same straggling, characterless caligraphy, — I should have said, had I been asked offhand, that the whole thing was the composition of a servant girl.

   • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 16:

     It was her virtue to be tall, pale, characterless and effaced by partial speechlessness.

Derived terms

• characterlessly
• characterlessness

 

Translations

having no distinguishing character or quality

• German: charakterlos (de)

Anagrams

• clearstarches