listless
/ˈlɪstlɪs/
listless adjective: lacking energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness.
Adjective
listless (comparative more listless, superlative most listless)
- Lacking energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness.
- I passed whole days on the lake alone in a little boat, watching the clouds, and listening to the rippling of the waves, silent and listless.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding...
- What an entirely different set of beings were those Stokesley children in lesson-time. . . . Poor, listless, stolid, deplorable logs, with bowed backs and crossed ankles, pipy voices and heavy eyes!1861, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 6, in The Stokesley Secret
- Synonyms:
- languid, spiritless, adiaphroistic, apathetic, apathistical, blasé, blithe, deaf, cool, shiftless
listless meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
listless in Tamil
- அக்கறையற்ற, மந்தமான
listless in Urdu
- غافل, مردہ دل
listless in Malayalam
- ക്ഷീണിച്ച, ഉന്മേഷമില്ലാത്ത, ഒന്നിലും താത്പര്യമില്ലാത്ത
listless in Kannada
- ಉತ್ಸಾಹಶೂನ್ಯ, ನಿರಾಸಕ್ತಿಯ, ಉದಾಸೀನ ಭಾವದ, ದಣಿದ, ಜಡ, ಚುರುಕಿಲ್ಲದ
Examples of listless in a sentence
- Wallace had broken his spirit, and he was listless now, indifferent to what happened.1901, William Somerset Maugham, chapter 21, in The Hero:
- “Listless, inattentive, distracted,” he recited.2005 November 29, Aryn Baker, “John Hardy: Bali Guy”, in Time:
Synonyms of listless
- languid
- spiritless
- adiaphroistic
- apathetic
- apathistical
- blasé
- blithe
- deaf
- cool
- shiftless
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- dispassionate
- dull
- enervated
- gallionic
- halfhearted
- impassive
- ineffervescible
- insouciant
- indifferent
- insensible
- jaded
- languorous
- lethargic
- lackadaisical
- lotophagous
- lukewarm
- meh
- mopey
- nonchalant
- nonplussed
- otiose
- phlegmatic
- pococurante
- supine
- tepid
- torpid
- unaroused
- uncaring
- unconcerned
- unenthusiastic
Forms of listless
| comparative | more listless |
|---|---|
| superlative | most listless |
Origin of listless
From Middle English lystles, equivalent to list (“desire”) + -less. Compare German lustlos and Dutch lusteloos (“lethargic, listless”). Doublet of lustless.
Words formed from listless
Questions about listless
- What does listless mean?
- Listless means lacking energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness.
- What is listless in Tamil?
- Listless in Tamil is அக்கறையற்ற, மந்தமான. See Listless meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use listless in a sentence?
- Wallace had broken his spirit, and he was listless now, indifferent to what happened.
- What part of speech is listless?
- Listless is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce listless?
- Listless is pronounced /ˈlɪstlɪs/.
Words near listless in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: listless (page history and authors); listless (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); listless (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); listless (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); listless (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-listless.ogg.
Cite this entry: “listless.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/listless. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.