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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

wordless en · ADJ

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English wordles, equivalent to word + -less. Compare Dutch woordeloos (“speechless, inexpressible in words”), German wortlos (“silent, speechless”), Danish ordløs (“wordless”), Swedish ordlös (“wordless”), Icelandic orðlaus (“wordless, speechless”).

Meanings

  1. Conveyed without the use of words; unspoken or unsaid.
    • On any given Friday night at the Claremont Colleges, between 15 and 20 Jewish students gather to sing wordless melodies, dive into textual study of Talmud or James Baldwin, or hold workshops on antisemitism. 2019 July 3, Jess Schwalb, “Red Line Rebellion”, in Jewish Currents:
  2. Unable or unwilling to speak; dumb, silent or inarticulate.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
most wordless Degree=Sup lexicographic
more wordless Degree=Cmp lexicographic

Antonyms

wordful

Deriveds

wordlessly · wordlessness

Synonyms

speechless

Translations (10)

pl bezwyrazowy (unspoken) · fi sanaton (unable or unwilling to speak) · gl sen palabras (unspoken) · fi mykkä (unable or unwilling to speak) · hi निःशब्द (unable or unwilling to speak) · pl bezsłowny (unspoken) · fi sanaton (unspoken) · vi vô ngôn (unspoken) · bg неизразен с думи (unspoken) · bg безмълвен (unable or unwilling to speak)