Restless

How to spell restless

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce restless

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does restless mean?

1. adjectiveUnable to rest or stay still, often from boredom, anxiety, or pent-up energy.

Restless in a sentence

• The children grew restless during the long flight home.

• A restless night left her exhausted at her desk.

Where does restless come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word restless is a native English formation, built from the Old English root rest, which meant 'repose' or 'a bed', combined with the suffix -less, from Old English -leas, meaning 'free from' or 'without'. That same -leas element gave us countless familiar pairs such as fearless, hopeless, and careless, and it traces back to a Germanic root meaning 'loose' or 'free of', the distant cousin of the modern word 'loose'. So restless quite literally describes a state of being 'without rest', and the word has carried that plain meaning since at least the Old English period. Over the centuries the sense widened from simple bodily wakefulness to the modern feeling of fidgety unease or constant motion. The spelling is wholly transparent once you see its two honest parts, rest and less, which is why it rarely trips writers up.

How the word is built

• rest (calm, repose)
• -less (without)