Word.ws English Dictionary

helpless

Syllables: help·less/ˈhɛlplɪs/

helpless adjective: unable to defend oneself.

Adjective

helpless (comparative more helpless, superlative most helpless)

  1. Unable to defend oneself.
    • Then when you find yourself lyin' helpless in her arms
      You know you really love a woman1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?
    • Rana Thanoptis: Are we good? Can I go?
      Shepard: You conducted brutal experiments on helpless test subjects. You helped Saren. You don't get to live.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: FTL Drive Codex entry
  2. Lacking help; powerless.
    • A gaoler struck him, pushing him back in place in the hopeless, helpless line of prisoners.1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 41
  3. Unable to act without help; needing help; feeble.
  4. Uncontrollable.
    • a helpless urge
  5. (obsolete) From which there is no possibility of being saved.
    • For, while they fly that gulf's devouring jawes,
      They on the rock are rent and sunck in helplesse wawes.1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

helpless meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

helpless in Hindi

unable to defend oneself — see also defenseless
विवश vivaś, असहाय ashāy, अशक्त aśakt
unable to act without help; needing help; feeble
असहाय ashāy, अशक्त aśakt

helpless in Tamil

உதவியற்றவர், ஆதரவற்றவர்

helpless in Marathi

helpless, poor
बिचारे bicāre

helpless in Urdu

unable to defend oneself — see also defenseless
بے بس be bas, مَجبُور majbūr
More languagesFewer languages
helpless in Bengali
অক্ষম okkhom, লাচার lacar, নাচার nacar, অসহায় ośohaẏ
helpless in Telugu
నిస్సహాయులు, నిస్సహాయురాలు
helpless in Malayalam
നിസ്സഹായൻ, നിസ്സഹായ
helpless in Kannada
ಪಂಜೆ
helpless in Punjabi
ٹنڈا ṭunḍā, ਟੁੰਡਾ ṭuṇḍā
helpless in Gujarati
બિચારું bicārũ
helpless in Odia
ଅସହାଯ଼
helpless in Assamese
বেচেৰা besera
helpless in Nepali
असहाय
helpless in Arabic
عَاجِز ʕājiz

Examples of helpless in a sentence

  • The nondeployment of troops left the villagers helpless.
  • If he thought she was such a helpless creature then let him get a taxi.
  • This is a great tie for a rope bunny who likes to feel helpless and completely bound.

All 40 example sentences with helpless

Forms of helpless

comparativemore helpless
superlativemost helpless

Origin of helpless

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”).

Words formed from helpless

Questions about helpless

What does helpless mean?
Helpless means unable to defend oneself.
What is helpless in Hindi?
Helpless in Hindi is विवश (vivaś), असहाय (ashāy), अशक्त (aśakt). See Helpless meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is helpless?
Helpless is an adjective.
How do you pronounce helpless?
Helpless is pronounced /ˈhɛlplɪs/.

Words near helpless in the dictionary

  1. helping professions
  2. helping verb
  3. helping verbs
  4. helpingly
  5. helpings
  6. helpless
  7. helplessdesk
  8. helplessdesks
  9. helplesse
  10. helplessly
  11. helplessness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: helpless (page history and authors); helpless (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); बिचारे (Marathi) (page history and authors); helpless (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); helpless (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); helpless (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ٹنڈا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); બિચારું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); helpless (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); বেচেৰা (Assamese) (page history and authors); helpless (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-helpless.ogg.

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