weightless

[ weyt-lis ]

adjective

1. being without apparent weight, as a freely falling body or a body acted upon by a force that neutralizes gravitation.

weightless

/ ˈweɪtləs /

adjective

1. (of a body) having no actual weight; a state in which an object has no actual weight (because it is in space and unaffected by gravitational attraction) or no apparent weight (because the gravitational attraction equals the centripetal force and the object is in free fall)
2. commerce
   1. (of economic activity) based on the supply of information and ideas rather than trade in physical goods

      the weightless economy

   2. (of a company) having very few physical assets

      weightless dot.coms

Derived Forms

• ˈweightlessness, noun

Other Words From

• weightless·ly adverb
• weightless·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of weightless¹

First recorded in 1540–50; weight + -less

Example Sentences

Fine and weightless, they finish any outfit.

From Los Angeles Times

She said the pair were undertaking the exercise programmes needed to stay healthy in the weightless environment.

From BBC

The breathtaking menswear displays in the show “Up, Up, and Away” featured couture-like poetry: seemingly weightless textiles that billowed like parachutes or kites.

From Seattle Times

The scarf hooked onto a bramble, from which he retrieved it, but when he tried to climb back with his trophy, the wind walloped and sent him spinning like weightless tumbleweed, his sweetheart’s scarf in his paw.

From Literature

Yet each has also done the opposite: Schubert, in his aptly nicknamed “Great” Symphony, with its Beethovenian heft, for example, and Adès in his hypnotic and weightless “Paradiso” section of “Dante.”

From New York Times

Related Words

• ethereal
• inconsequential
• trivial