Seamless

How to spell seamless

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce seamless

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does seamless mean?

1. adjectiveSmooth and continuous, with no obvious gaps, joins, or interruptions.

Seamless in a sentence

• The new software promises a seamless transfer of all your files.

• The two departments worked together to deliver seamless customer service.

Where does seamless come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the native English noun 'seam' joined to the suffix '-less', meaning 'without'. The root 'seam' comes from the Old English 'seam', which described the line of stitching where two pieces of cloth are sewn together; it traces back to a Germanic source related to the verb meaning 'to sew' and is a cousin of the Dutch 'zoom' and German 'Saum'. The suffix '-less' is equally old and native, from the Old English 'leas', meaning 'free from' or 'devoid of'. So a 'seamless' garment was literally one woven in a single piece with no visible join, and from that concrete tailoring image the word broadened by the nineteenth century into the figurative sense of anything so smooth that no break or transition can be seen. The spelling trap is the unexpected double meaning of the opening: it begins with 'sea' even though it has nothing to do with the ocean, and the silent join of 'seam' plus 'less' keeps a single 'l', not two.

How the word is built

• seam (a sewn join or line)
• -less (without)