Jobless

How to spell jobless

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce jobless

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does jobless mean?

1. adjectiveWithout paid employment; unemployed.

Jobless in a sentence

• After the factory closed, hundreds of workers were left jobless.

• He stayed jobless for nearly a year before finding new work.

Where does jobless come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word joins the noun 'job' with the native English suffix '-less', which descends from Old English 'leas', meaning 'free from', 'devoid of', or 'lacking'. The same suffix sits behind dozens of everyday words such as 'homeless', 'fearless', and 'penniless', always signalling the absence of whatever comes before it. The root 'job' is more mysterious: it appears in English from around the late 1500s, and its earlier sense referred to a small piece of work or a single task done for pay, perhaps related to an old word 'jobbe' meaning a lump or cartload. From there 'job' broadened to mean regular paid employment, and the modern compound 'jobless' (without paid work) became common in the twentieth century, especially in reporting on unemployment. Because the '-less' ending is added straight onto the whole word, the spelling stays transparent: 'job' plus 'less', with the double 's' belonging entirely to the suffix.

How the word is built

• job (paid work, employment)
• -less (suffix meaning 'without')