Without

How to spell without

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce without

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does without mean?

1. prepositionIn the absence of something or someone; not having or not accompanied by.

Without in a sentence

• The team finished the project without any extra funding.

• She walked into the meeting without her notes.

Where does without come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word, formed in Old English as wiðūtan, a compound of wið, which originally meant 'against' or 'alongside' rather than the modern 'with', and ūtan, meaning 'from the outside' or 'outwardly'. The literal early sense was therefore something like 'on the outside of', and for centuries it was used in a spatial way to mean the exterior of a place, a meaning still faintly preserved in old phrases about the world within and the world without. Over time the dominant sense shifted to the idea of lacking or being free of something, so that to be without money simply meant to be in a state where money was absent. The first element wið is the same word that gives us the modern preposition 'with', which is why the spelling keeps that familiar block intact. Because both halves are ordinary, transparent English pieces, the spelling holds no real surprises beyond remembering it is a single closed-up word.

How the word is built

• with (Old English wið: against, alongside)
• out (Old English ūtan: on the outside)