helpless

[ help-lis ]

adjective

1. unable to help oneself; weak or dependent:

   a helpless invalid.

2. deprived of strength or power; powerless; incapacitated:

   They were helpless with laughter.

3. affording no help.

helpless

/ ˈhɛlplɪs /

adjective

1. unable to manage independently
2. made powerless or weak

   they were helpless from so much giggling

3. without help

Derived Forms

• ˈhelplessness, noun
• ˈhelplessly, adverb

Other Words From

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of helpless¹

First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English; help + -less

Example Sentences

As the pandemic and the rising casualty count dominated the news, people trying to avoid the virus have remained isolated at home, feeling helpless.

From MIT Technology Review

Leaf-cutting worker ants might look like they’d be helpless against an enemy soldier ant many times their size.

From Science News

We didn’t realize it was a long journey until we realized how helpless we were.

From Washington Post

To respect their wishes, I sat in the parched grass and waited, feeling helpless.

From Outside Online

Looking at that newspaper in the middle of the American desert, I wondered whether it was now my turn to know familial loss and feel helpless.

From Outside Online

“It's insane to see what the extreme version of that type of helpless anger combined with mental illness can create,” Cook wrote.

From The Daily Beast

“No, the church has to be on the side of the most disadvantaged, of the poorest, of the helpless,” the padre tells us.

From The Daily Beast

He saves the helpless from burning buildings and puppies from untimely deaths.

From The Daily Beast

I feel helpless at moments because I do not know how to help the people who lost their families and friends.

From The Daily Beast

At the stage when you are a helpless baby, Mom is, literally, everything.

From The Daily Beast

The fingers of all the clocks in the house were revolving with the most extraordinary rapidity--she was helpless.

From Project Gutenberg

She was helpless, because she had said nothing all day of her appointment, and because Janet had not mentioned it either.

From Project Gutenberg

The keen resentment had faded from his face, but an immense reproach was there—a heavy, helpless, appealing reproach.

From Project Gutenberg

"Perhaps I can write to you," Hugh tried to console her, feeling horribly guilty and helpless.

From Project Gutenberg

But Bocardon, who had to account to higher powers, the proprietors of the hotel, was helpless.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• defenseless
• destitute
• forlorn
• impotent
• paralyzed
• powerless
• unable
• unprotected
• vulnerable
• weak