homeless
/ˈhoʊmlɪs/
homeless adjective: lacking a permanent place of residence.
Adjective
homeless (not comparable)
- Lacking a permanent place of residence.
- Whenever I pass the park, I see the homeless people sleeping on the benches.
- Xinyang special region received 1,200-1,400 mm of rain between June and August 1956: 280,000 homes were destroyed and 3.2 million peasants (out of a total of almost 6 million) were left homeless. In the most affected county in the special region and the province, Huaibin, 60 percent of the total...1995 [1982], Jean-Luc Domenach, “The First Leftist Excesses and Their Consequences (Summer 1955-Winter 1956)”, in A M Berrett, transl., The Origins of the Great Leap Forward: The Case of One Chinese...
- Containing no place that might be called home.
- But I should turn mine ears and hear
The moanings of the homeless sea,
The sound of streams that swift or slow
Draw down Æonian hills, and sow
The dust of continents to be; […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 54
- But I should turn mine ears and hear
Noun
homeless (plural homelesses)
- A person who is homeless.
- Oszlár Kálmán András, Yoga in the Bed: Tantric Continence & Spiritual Intimacy
[…] the jobseekers and homelesses or even the future prime minister, all of us are involved in formation of the new world. - […] homelesses' due process rights and infringed upon the homelesses' fundamental right to travel […]1997, Martin Lyle Forst, The Police and the Homeless: Creating a Partnership Between Law Enforcement and Social Service Agencies in the Development of Effective Policies and Programs, page 54
- Oszlár Kálmán András, Yoga in the Bed: Tantric Continence & Spiritual Intimacy
homeless meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
homeless in Hindi
- lacking a permanent residence
- बेघर beghar, निराश्रित nirāśrit
homeless in Urdu
- lacking a permanent residence
- بے گَھر be-ghar
homeless in Bengali
- গৃহহীন, গৃহহারা, নিরাশ্রয়, গৃহশূন্য, নির্গৃহ, নিরাশ্রক
homeless in Telugu
- lacking a permanent residence
- వసతిలేని vasatilēni
More languagesFewer languages
- homeless in Malayalam
- ഭവനരഹിത, വീടില്ലാത്ത
- homeless in Kannada
- ಮನೆಗೆಡು, ಅನಿಕೇತನ, ಮನೆಯಿಲ್ಲದವರು
- homeless in Arabic
- مُتَشَرِّد mutašarrid
- homeless in Malay
- gelandangan, tuna wisma
- homeless in Indonesian
- tuna wisma
- homeless in Persian
- بیخانمان bi-xânemân
- homeless in Thai
- ไร้บ้าน, เร่ร่อน, ร่อนเร่, พเนจร pá-nee-jɔɔn
- homeless in Vietnamese
- vô gia cư, không cửa không nhà
Examples of homeless in a sentence
- Xinyang special region received 1,200-1,400 mm of rain between June and August 1956: 280,000 homes were destroyed and 3.2 million peasants (out of a total of almost 6 million) were left homeless.1995 [1982], Jean-Luc Domenach, “The First Leftist Excesses and Their Consequences (Summer 1955-Winter 1956)”, in A M Berrett, transl., The...
- The massive arches of the retaining walls have become tent city for the many homeless people in the area.2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 57:
Forms of homeless
| plural | homelesses |
|---|
Origin of homeless
From Middle English *homles, *hamles, from Old English hāmlēas (“homeless”), equivalent to home + -less. Cognate with Dutch heemloos, Danish hjemløs (“homeless”), Swedish hemlös (“homeless”). Compare also German heimatlos (“homeless”), Icelandic heimilislaus (“homeless”), West Frisian dakleas (“homeless”, literally “having no roof, roofless”).
Words formed from homeless
Phrases with homeless
Questions about homeless
- What does homeless mean?
- Homeless means lacking a permanent place of residence.
- What is homeless in Hindi?
- Homeless in Hindi is बेघर (beghar), निराश्रित (nirāśrit). See Homeless meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use homeless in a sentence?
- Xinyang special region received 1,200-1,400 mm of rain between June and August 1956: 280,000 homes were destroyed and 3.2 million peasants (out of a total of almost 6 million) were left homeless.
- What part of speech is homeless?
- Homeless can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce homeless?
- Homeless is pronounced /ˈhoʊmlɪs/ (US).
Words near homeless in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: homeless (page history and authors); homeless (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); homeless (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); homeless (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-homeless.ogg.
Cite this entry: “homeless.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/homeless. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.