helpless

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English helples, from Old English *helplēas (“helpless”) from Proto-Germanic *helpōlausaz, equivalent to help +‎ -less. Compare Dutch hulpeloos (“helpless”), German hilflos (“helpless”), Danish hjælpeløs (“helpless”) and Swedish hjälplös (“helpless”). === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈhɛlplɪs/ Hyphenation: help‧less === Adjective === helpless (comparative more helpless, superlative most helpless) Unable to defend oneself. Lacking help; powerless. Unable to act without help; needing help; feeble. Uncontrollable. a helpless urge (obsolete) From which there is no possibility of being saved. ==== Usage notes ==== Words with the suffix -less are often antonyms of those with -ful (such as with useless and useful). However, while helpful applies to something that provides help, helpless is not used to mean something that does not provide help. For that meaning, unhelpful is used instead. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== ==== Further reading ==== “helpless”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “helpless”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.