Fearless

How to spell fearless

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fearless

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fearless mean?

1. adjectiveShowing no fear; bold and unafraid in the face of danger or difficulty.

Fearless in a sentence

• The firefighter made a fearless dash into the burning building.

• Investors admired her fearless approach to risky markets.

Where does fearless come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word, built from two Old English parts that have stayed remarkably close to their original forms. The first element, 'fear', comes from the Old English noun 'fær', which originally meant a sudden danger or calamity rather than the inner emotion; the modern sense of an unpleasant feeling of dread grew out of that idea of impending peril. The suffix '-less' descends from the Old English '-leas', meaning 'free from' or 'lacking', which is itself related to the verb behind 'loose' and 'lose'. Joined together, the two literally describe someone who is 'without fear', and the word has been used in roughly its present sense since the medieval period. Because both halves are ordinary, transparent English pieces, the only spelling point worth remembering is that '-less' always carries a double 's', never a single one.

How the word is built

• fear (Old English fær: danger, sudden peril)
• -less (without, free from)