Childless

How to spell childless

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce childless

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does childless mean?

1. adjectiveHaving no children.

Childless in a sentence

• The childless couple devoted their time to their nieces and nephews.

• Many childless adults choose to spend their savings on travel.

Where does childless come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from two thoroughly native English pieces and dates back to Old English, where it appeared as cildleas. The first element, cild, is the ancestor of modern 'child' and simply meant a young person or offspring. The second element comes from the Old English leas, meaning 'free from', 'without', or 'lacking', the same suffix that survives in words such as 'hopeless', 'fearless', and 'homeless'. That suffix is unrelated to the adjective 'less' meaning 'a smaller amount', though they share a distant Germanic background. Because the spelling is wholly Germanic and the suffix is so familiar, the word has stayed regular and transparent for over a thousand years, and the only thing to watch is the single 's' in the ending.

How the word is built

• child (young person, offspring)
• -less (without, lacking)