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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

frictionless en · ADJ

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English friction Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Proto-Germanic *-lausaz Proto-West Germanic *-laus Old English -lēas Middle English -les English -less English frictionless From friction + -less.

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable) Of or pertaining to lack of friction.
    • A hard border is a real possibility, and a frictionless border is almost an oxymoron.
    • “People have sort of conditioned themselves to want a completely seamless and frictionless experience in their everyday lives 100% of the time,” says Josh Lora, a writer and sociologist who has written about AI and loneliness. “There are people who Uber everywhere, who Seamless everything, who Amazon everything, and render their lives completely smooth.” […] To her, adding AI into relationships “presupposes inadequacy” in them, and offers a sterile alternative: always saying the right thing, back and forth, frictionless forever. 2025 June 30, Adrienne Matei, “‘Hey man, I’m so sorry for your loss’: should you use AI to text?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 05 Jul 2025:
    • It would last many years because of its frictionless bearings.
    • In the decade ahead, the story must be one of increasingly frictionless travel. 2021 May 19, Paul Stephen, “Our railway in RAIL's next 40 years: Jacqueline Starr”, in RAIL, number 931, page 40:
  2. (not-comparable) Of a transaction or trade, without tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
    • "There can be no frictionless trade outside of the customs union and the single market," said Donald Tusk, president of the council of all 28 EU member states. 2018 March 1, Charles Riley, “Brexit dream of 'frictionless' trade with EU is dying”, in CNN Business, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2025:

Deriveds

frictionlessness · frictionlessly

Translations (8)

it senza intoppi (of or pertaining to lack of friction) · it senza attrito (of or pertaining to lack of friction) · de reibungslos (of or pertaining to lack of friction) · it senza problemi (of or pertaining to lack of friction) · it scorrevole (of or pertaining to lack of friction) · fi kitkaton (of or pertaining to lack of friction) · mi wakukore (of or pertaining to lack of friction) · sv friktionsfri (of or pertaining to lack of friction)