Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use helplessness in a sentence

18 example sentences · noun

Helplessness means the state of being helpless. Example: “From the most ancient times to the present, in the crudest primitive tribe or the most magnificently ornamented civilization, man has found himself in a state of awed helplessness when confronted by the phenomena of strange illnesses or aberrations.”

Examples of helplessness by meaning

nounThe state of being helpless.

  • From the most ancient times to the present, in the crudest primitive tribe or the most magnificently ornamented civilization, man has found himself in a state of awed helplessness when confronted by the phenomena of strange illnesses or aberrations.1950, L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics, New Era Publications, published 1999, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 10
  • Accept your helplessness.'2021 October 8, Metroid Dread, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, scene: Adam Briefing, level/area: Cataris

nounA feeling of inadequacy or impotence.

  • Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile ; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

More sentences with helplessness

  • This is learned helplessness: internalizing that you don’t have control in difficult scenarios.2025 March 24, Sofia Lodato, quoting Olivia Verhulst, “Have You Given Up Trying? This Is Why, According to a Therapist”, in Oprah Daily. From the entry learned helplessness
  • Anxiety is a state of emotional know-nothingness in which the individual succumbs to helplessness.2012, Peter R. Breggin, Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. From the entry know-nothingness
  • Barry sounded lighter, his spirits lifting slightly from the shell shocking humiliation and helplessness he'd been feeling.2010, John E. Shephard, Jr, Cottage Lake Soliloquy, page 10. From the entry shell shock
  • Most nurses found the helplessness of "the shell shocks" painful and "pitiful."2004, Susan Zeiger, In Uncle Sam's Service: Women Workers with the American Expeditionary Force, 1917—1919, page 131. From the entry shell shock
  • Where every day is devoted to minimize the mental and emotional paper cuts of fear and helplessness.2004, Karen Haber, Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present, page 203. From the entry paper cut
  • By late summer, the magistrates themselves admitted their helplessness.2012, Marie-Hélène Huet, The Culture of Disaster, →ISBN, page 28. From the entry corbeau
  • Yaoi uke in fanfics often bear the brunt of stereotypical "negative female characteristics" such as passivity, helplessness, and masochism.2008, Tan Bee Kee, “Rewriting Gender and Sexuality in English-language Yaoi Fanfiction”, in Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti…. From the entry uke
  • For the ageplayer, reexperiencing childish vulnerability or helplessness in an emotionally and physically safe context satisfies a profound emotional need.1996, Gloria G. Brame, William D. Brame, Jon Jacobs, Different Loving: The World of Sexual Dominance and Submission. From the entry ageplayer
  • Anosmics show varying degrees of depressive symptoms, such as feelings of helplessness, isolation in their condition, sad mood, loss of independence, and fatigue.2011, Tim Jacob, “The Science of Taste and Smell”, in Francesca Bacci, David Melcher, editors, Art and the Senses, Oxford: Oxford…. From the entry anosmic
  • When introjects are weak (or even absent), an anaclitic personality configuration results, characterized by dependency, insecurity, and feelings of helplessness and emptiness.2003, Theodore Millon, Melvin J. Lerner, Irving B. Weiner, Handbook of Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology, page 123. From the entry anaclitic
  • Institutionalism is brought about, in part, by a sense of learned helplessness, a belief that one has no control over one's environment.2003, Robert Stephen Feldman, Development Across the Life Span. From the entry institutionalism
  • There is the needle-girl, with her helplessness, her nerveless imbecility, her utter ignorance, her dolorous prettiness, her thriftless marriage, her half-starved children dying about her like flies.2013, Pierre Coustillas, Collin Partridge, George Gissing: The Critical Heritage, →ISBN, page 143. From the entry needle-girl
  • It is a strange performance, the clash of callow self-certainty with a certain innate modesty, resolved in a (typically Zweigian) stance of passivity and helplessness and evasion (‘probably’).2010 January 28, Michael Hofmann, “Vermicular Dither”, in London Review of Books, volume 32, number 02, →ISSN. From the entry Zweigian
  • Such perceived helplessness on the part of the therapist reinvokes the image of the ineffectual parent who could do nothing to protect her child from extreme forms of abuse.1994, Jody Messler Davies, Treating The Adult Survivor Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, →ISBN. From the entry reinvoke
  • The White House would be the culmination of a quest for power that contrasts with the powerlessness of his poverty-ridden early years and the helplessness that followed the war wound.1987 November 8, Martin Tolchin, Jeff Gerth, “The Contradictions of Bob Dole”, in New York Times. From the entry poverty-ridden

Meaning of helplessness

  1. noun The state of being helpless.
  2. noun A feeling of inadequacy or impotence.

Full definition of helplessness

Questions about helplessness in a sentence

How do you use helplessness in a sentence?
Helplessness is used as a noun. For example: “From the most ancient times to the present, in the crudest primitive tribe or the most magnificently ornamented civilization, man has found himself in a state of awed helplessness when confronted by the phenomena of strange illnesses or aberrations.”
What is a short sentence with helplessness?
“Accept your helplessness.'”
What does helplessness mean?
Helplessness means the state of being helpless.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: helplessness (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use helplessness in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/helplessness. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.