Needlessly

How to spell needlessly

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce needlessly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does needlessly mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is not necessary; without good reason.

Needlessly in a sentence

• The report repeated the same figures needlessly, padding it out for no reason.

• He worried needlessly about a deadline that had already been extended.

Where does needlessly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This adverb is built on the native English noun 'need', which goes back to the Old English nēod or nied, meaning a state of necessity or compulsion, something that must be done. To this was added the Old English suffix -lēas, the ancestor of modern '-less', which literally meant 'free from' or 'without', so 'needless' originally described something done or existing without any necessity. The further suffix -ly, from the Old English -līce, turns the adjective into an adverb describing how an action is performed. All three building blocks are home-grown Germanic elements rather than borrowings, which is why the word feels so plainly English. The spelling trap lives in the seam between the parts: 'need' ends in a double 'e', and joining '-less' produces the run 'dl' followed by a single 's', so writers must resist both dropping an 'e' and doubling the wrong letter.

How the word is built

• need (Old English nēod, requirement)
• -less (without)
• -ly (adverb suffix)