Word.ws English Dictionary

headless

/ˈhɛdləs/

headless adjective: synonym of decapitated.

Adjective

headless (not comparable)

  1. Synonym of decapitated.
    • How did the headless horseman see to chase Ichabod?
  2. Naturally having and needing no head.
    • headless invertebrates
  3. Without a head (hardware or device feature).
    • a headless nail; a headless set screw
    Synonyms:
    unheaded
  4. Without leadership.
    • The headless army blundered along after the death of their general, accomplishing nothing.
    • His forsaken soldiers, being now a headless company, and no longer an army to be feared, obtained nevertheless a reasonable composition from the Carthaginians […]1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5)
    Synonyms:
    leaderless
  5. Not having a head morpheme or word.
  6. Running without a graphical user interface; running without any attached output device (e.g., monitor) or input device (e.g., keyboard, mouse).
    • /redirect. Used for console redirection in headless servers.2003, William Boswell, Inside Windows Server 2003, Addison-Wesley, →ISBN, page 62
    • Routers typically run headless, without a keyboard or monitor.2007, Carla Schroder, Linux Networking Cookbook, O’Reilly Media, published 2008, →ISBN, page 47
  7. Without a head of foam.
  8. (obsolete) Heedless.
    • If any one will rashly blame such his choice of old and unwonted words, him may I more justly blame and condemn, either of witless headiness in judging, or of headless hardiness in condemning.1579, E. K. (Edward Kirke?), Notes on Spenser’s The Shepheardes Calender
    • THENOT: Cuddy, I wot thou kenſt little Good, / So vainly to advance thy headleſs Hood.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC
  9. (obsolete) Rimless, not having a cartridge case rim (flange).
    • A headless shell doesn't have a flange.

headless meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

headless in Tamil

without a head
தலை இல்லா talai illā

headless in Marathi

डोके नसलेली

headless in Urdu

بےسر

headless in Bengali

মাথা বিহীন, মাথাবিহীন, মাথাহীন
More languagesFewer languages
headless in Telugu
తలలేనిది, తల లేనిది
headless in Malayalam
തലയില്ലാത്തവർ, തലയില്ലാത്തവൻ
headless in Kannada
ತಲೆ ಇಲ್ಲದವರು, ತಲೆಯಿಲ್ಲದವರು, ತಲೆಯಿಲ್ಲದ
headless in Punjabi
ਸਿਰ ਰਹਿਤ, ਸਿਰਹੀਣ
headless in Gujarati
હેડલેસ, માથા વિનાનું
headless in Odia
ମୁଣ୍ଡହୀନ, ମୁଣ୍ଡବିହୀନ
headless in Nepali
हेडलेस, शिररहित, शिरहीन

Examples of headless in a sentence

  • The Headless Horsewoman got here By day , by night , I go headless, I go craving.
  • Such lines are said to be acephalous (headless) or, as acrostic writers would put it, “beheaded.”
  • Stephen looked down on a wide headless caubeen, hung on his ashplanthandle over his knee.

All 16 example sentences with headless

Synonyms of headless

All synonyms of headless

Origin of headless

From Middle English heedles, hevedles, from Old English hēafodlēas (“headless”), equivalent to head + -less. Cognate with Dutch hoofdloos (“headless”), Danish hovedløs (“headless”), Swedish huvudlös (“headless”), Icelandic höfuðlaus (“headless”). Piecewise doublet of chefless and chiefless.

Words formed from headless

Phrases with headless

Words that rhyme with headless

Questions about headless

What does headless mean?
Headless means synonym of decapitated.
What is headless in Tamil?
Headless in Tamil is தலை இல்லா (talai illā). See Headless meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is headless?
Headless is an adjective.
How do you pronounce headless?
Headless is pronounced /ˈhɛdləs/.

Words near headless in the dictionary

  1. headlaps
  2. headlease
  3. headleases
  4. Headlee
  5. Headlees
  6. headless
  7. headless browser
  8. headless browsers
  9. headless chicken monster
  10. headless chicken monsters
  11. Headless Cross

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: headless (page history and authors); headless (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); headless (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); headless (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); headless (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); headless (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); headless (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); headless (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); headless (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); headless (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); headless (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-headless.wav.

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