lightless
Americanadjective
-
without light or lights; receiving no light; dark.
-
giving no light.
Other Word Forms
- lightlessness noun
Etymology
Origin of lightless
before 1000; Middle English lihtles, Old English lēohtlēas. See light 1, -less
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
While you can’t help but appreciate the cherry red of the deep-sea atolla jellyfish, you will also learn why its unusual pigment persists in the lightless depths.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
Much of the deep ocean is vacant, with extremely cold, lightless regions making it difficult for life as we know it to survive.
From Salon • May 21, 2025
Today, there are more than 300 species of anglerfish, which makes them the most varied family of vertebrates in the ocean’s lightless zone.
From New York Times • May 30, 2024
There are writers at this very newspaper, all upstanding individuals, who would have you believe a mythologized weather pattern of doom is about to plunge our mountain-nestled utopia into an epoch of lightless despair.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 20, 2023
Penelope willed her heart not to race as she led them up the lightless stairs.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
