Word.ws English Dictionary

craftless

craftless adjective: without craft; unskilled.

Adjective (1)

craftless (not comparable)

  1. Without craft; unskilled.
    • Ostensibly the reasons given were that craftless people could not readily find jobs […]1980, Hyman Bogomolny Grinstein, A Short History of the Jews in the United States

Adjective (2)

craftless (not comparable)

  1. Without craft; boatless, etc.
    • Now one had come to see these craftless rivers, empty stations and poverty instead of wealth.1926, Alec Tweedie, An Adventurous Journey (Russia-Siberia-China)

Origin of craftless

From Middle English craftles, creftleas, from Old English cræftlēas (“artless, unskilful, innocent, simple, inexpert”), from Proto-West Germanic *kraftulaus, equivalent to craft + -less. Cognate with West Frisian krêftleas (“powerless”), Dutch krachteloos (“powerless”), German kraftlos (“powerless”).

From craft + -less.

Words formed from craftless

Questions about craftless

What does craftless mean?
Craftless means without craft; unskilled.
What part of speech is craftless?
Craftless is an adjective.

Words near craftless in the dictionary

  1. craftists
  2. craftivism
  3. craftivist
  4. craftivists
  5. craftlace
  6. craftless
  7. craftlessness
  8. craftlike
  9. craftly
  10. craftmaking
  11. craftman

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: craftless (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “craftless.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/craftless. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.