Worthless
adjectiveHaving no real value, usefulness, or importance.
How to spell worthless
9 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce worthless
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does worthless mean?
- adjectiveHaving no real value, usefulness, or importance.
Worthless in a sentence
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The old shares turned out to be completely worthless after the company collapsed.
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Without a receipt the warranty card is worthless.
Where does worthless come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Worthless is a native English compound formed from two old Germanic elements. The first part, 'worth', descends from the Old English 'weorth', meaning value, price, or merit, which had close relatives across the Germanic languages, including the Old High German 'werd'. The second part, the suffix '-less', comes from the Old English 'leas', meaning free from, devoid of, or lacking; this is the same element that ends countless modern words such as 'fearless' and 'hopeless'. Joined together, the word literally means 'lacking any worth', and it appears in English from around the 1500s. The spelling is wholly transparent once you remember it is simply 'worth' plus 'less', with no doubled or dropped letters in the join.
How the word is built
- worth (value, merit)
- -less (without)
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