Word.ws English Dictionary

without

Syllables: with·outUK/wɪðˈaʊt//wɪθˈaʊt/

without adverb: outside, externally.

Adverb

without (not comparable)

  1. (archaic, literary) Outside, externally.
    • And as each and all of them were warmed without by the sun, so each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in; some dream, some affection, some hobby, at least some remote and distant hope which, though perhaps starving to nothing, still lived on, as hopes will.1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 18
    • Strange silence here: without, the sounding street
      Heralds the world's swift passage to the fire1900, Ernest Dowson, Benedictio Domini, lines 13–14
  2. Lacking something; failing.
    • Being from a large, poor family, he learned to live without.
    • We've run out of bread; you'll have to do without until I can get to the bakeshop.
  3. (euphemistic) Without a condom being worn.
    • “What's within reason?” “Hand-job, blow-job, full sex — straight, full service. Greek, maybe, if you're not too big. Golden shower, if you like, but not reverse. No hardsports. And absolutely nothing without.”2012, Maxim Jakubowski, The Best British Crime Omnibus

Preposition

without

  1. (archaic, literary) Outside of, beyond.
    • MACBETH: There's blood upon your face.
      FIRST MURDERER: 'Tis Banquo's then.
      MACBETH: 'Tis better thee without than he within.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • Without the gate / Some drive the cars, and some the coursers rein.1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
    Antonyms:
    within
  2. Not having, containing, characteristic of, etc.
    • It was a mistake to leave my house without a coat.
    • I was without formal education but was well read and articulate.
    Antonyms:
    with
  3. Not doing or not having done something.
    • He likes to eat everything without sharing.
    • He shot without warning anyone.

Conjunction

without

  1. (archaic, dialectal) Unless, except (introducing a clause).
    • You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," but that ain't no matter.1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter I, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 1
    • ‘Why,’ he blurted, ‘because they say I've no right to come up like this—without we mean to marry—’1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC

Noun

without (plural withouts)

  1. (uncommon) Someone or something lacking in something.

without meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

without in Hindi

not having
...के बिना ...ke binā, बग़ैर baġair, बिना binā, विना vinā

without in Tamil

இல்லாமல், இல்லாம, இல்லாமலேயே

without in Urdu

not having
... کے بنا ... ke binā, کے بنا ke binā, بغیر baġair, بدون badūn

without in Bengali

not having
ছাড়া chaṛa, বিনা bina
More languagesFewer languages
without in Telugu
లేకుండా, లేనిదే, లేకుండానే
without in Malayalam
ഇല്ലാതെ
without in Kannada
ಇಲ್ಲದೇ, ಇಲ್ಲದೆ, ಇಲ್ಲದೆಯೇ
without in Punjabi
ਬਿਨਾਂ
without in Gujarati
વગર vagar, વિના ( vinā
without in Odia
ବିନା
without in Sanskrit
विना vinā
without in Nepali
बिना
without in Pashto
بې be
without in Arabic
بِدُونِ bidūni, بِلَا bilā, بِغَيْرِ biḡayri, دُونَ dūna
without in Malay
tanpa, tidak ada, sonder
without in Indonesian
tanpa
without in Persian
بی bē, بدون bidūn-i, فاقد fāqid
without in Thai
ไร้ rái, ไม่มี mâi-mii
without in Vietnamese
không có
without in Myanmar
မ...ဘဲ ma....bhai:

Examples of without in a sentence

  • Whose can be used with a following noun or without.
  • Without noticing it I grew old.
  • I knew that someone had entered the house cautiously from without.1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez, Norton, published 2005, page 1100:
  • The feeling seemed to come not from without, but from within each body, as though every person had become a vibrating string.2016, Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu, Death's End, Tor, translation of 死神永生, →ISBN, page 236:
  • Communication is a kind of beauty, he said – and “beauty manifests itself from the noun itself, without strawberries on the cake.”2019 September 24, Jessie Yeung, “Pope Francis loves nouns but is ‘allergic’ to adjectives”, in CNN, archived from the original on 27 Sep...
  • From thence we came without the Eaſtern gate, (ſtanding on a low Banke, called the daughter of Syon, that over-toppeth the valley of Iehoſaphat,) unto an immoveable ſtone, upon the which they ſaid St.1640, William Lithgow, “The Sixt Part”, in The Totall Diſcourſe, Of the rare Adventures, and painefull Peregrinations of long nineteene...

All 40 example sentences with without

Synonyms of without

3 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of without

Forms of without

Adverb
alternative form (obsolete)withoute
alternative form (obsolete)wythoute
alternative form (obsolete)wythowt
alternative form (obsolete)wythowte
Noun
pluralwithouts

Origin of without

From Middle English withoute, withouten, from Old English wiþūtan (literally “against the outside of”). By surface analysis, with- + out. Compare Dutch buiten (“outside of, without”), Danish uden (“without”), Swedish utan (“without”), Norwegian uten (“without”). Superseded non-native Middle English sauns, sans (“without”), from Old French sans, sanz, senz (“without”). Compare typologically Proto-Slavic *bez (“without”) (<+ Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs (“out”)).

Words formed from without

Phrases with without

82 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with without

42 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about without

What does without mean?
Without means outside, externally.
What is without in Hindi?
Without in Hindi is ...के बिना (...ke binā), बग़ैर (baġair), बिना (binā). See Without meaning in Hindi.
How do you use without in a sentence?
Whose can be used with a following noun or without.
What part of speech is without?
Without can be an adverb, a preposition, a conjunction or a noun.
How do you pronounce without?
Without is pronounced /wɪðˈaʊt/ (UK).

Words near without in the dictionary

  1. withness
  2. withold
  3. witholden
  4. witholding
  5. witholds
  6. without
  7. without a by your leave
  8. without a by-your-leave
  9. without a doubt
  10. without a hitch
  11. without a murmur

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: without (page history and authors); without (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); without (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); without (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); without (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); without (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); without (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); without (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: en-us-without.ogg, en-ca-without.ogg.

Cite this entry: “without.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/without. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.