Lawless

How to spell lawless

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lawless

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lawless mean?

1. adjectiveNot governed by or obedient to law; marked by disorder and the absence of legal control.

Lawless in a sentence

• The mining town became lawless once the sheriff resigned.

• Reporters described the region as a lawless frontier where no court held sway.

Where does lawless come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a native English compound, built from 'law' plus the suffix '-less', and both parts trace back to Old English and the wider Germanic family. The root 'law' descends from the Old English 'lagu', meaning something laid down or fixed, which itself was borrowed from Old Norse 'lag', literally 'something laid', from the verb meaning 'to lay'. The ending '-less' comes from Old English 'leas', meaning 'free from', 'without', or 'lacking', the same element that gives us 'helpless', 'careless', and 'fearless'. By the late medieval period 'lawless' had settled into its modern sense, describing a person, place, or act that ignores or operates beyond the reach of established law. The spelling is regular and phonetic, so the only small trap is remembering the double 's' where '-less' joins a word that already ends in a consonant.

How the word is built

• law (rule enforced by authority, from Old English lagu)
• -less (without)