without

See also Without

English

Alternative forms

• withoute (archaic)
• wythoute (obsolete)
• wythowt (obsolete)
• wythowte (obsolete)

Etymology

From Late Old English wiþūtan. with- +‎ out

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /wɪθˈaʊt/, /wɪðˈaʊt/, SAMPA: /wIT"aUt/, /wID"aUt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: with‧out

Adverb

without (comparative more without, superlative most without)

1. (archaic or literary) outside, externally
   • c.1600s, William Shakespeare, Macbeth

     Macbeth: There's blood upon your face

     Murderer: 'tis Banquo's then

     Macbeth: 'tis better thee without then he within.

   • 1900, Ernest Dowson, Benedictio Domini, lines 13-14

     Strange silence here: without, the sounding street

     Heralds the world's swift passage to the fire

   • 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez (Norton 2005, p.1100)

     I knew that someone had entered the house cautiously from without.

2. Lacking something.

   Being from a large, poor family, he learned to live without.

Preposition

without

1. (archaic or literary) Outside of, beyond

   The snow was swirling without the cottage, but it was warm within.

   Life goes on within you and without you. - George Harrison - Sgt Pepper

2. Not having, containing, characteristic of, etc..

   It was a mistake to leave my house without a coat.

   Life goes on within you and without you. - George Harrison - Sgt Pepper

Derived terms

• withoutness

Synonyms

• lacking, outwith, with no, -less, w/o, sans

Antonyms

• (outside): within
• (not having): with, having, characteristic of, endowed with

Translations

not having

Albanian: pa (sq) Ancient Greek: ἄνευ (áneu) Anglo-Norman: senz Arabic: بدون (ar) (bi-dūna), بغير (ar) (bi-ġáyri) Egyptian Arabic: من غير (men ġer) Armenian: առանց (hy) (aṙanc’) Basque: gabe, barik Belarusian: без (be) (bez) Breton: hep Bulgarian: без (bg) (bez) Catalan: sense Chinese: Mandarin: 沒有 (zh), 没有 (zh) (méiyǒu), 無 (zh), 无 (zh) (wú) Croatian: bez (hr) Czech: bez (cs), beze (cs) Danish: uden (da) Dutch: zonder (nl) Egyptian: mḫm Esperanto: sen (eo) Estonian: ilma + -ta (abessive case) Finnish: ilman, -tta/-ttä (abessive case), vailla French: sans (fr), (Quebec,informal) pas de (fr), (Quebec,informal) avec pas de (fr) m. Old French: sans, sanz German: ohne (de) Greek: χωρίς (el) (chorís), δίχως (el) (díchos), άνευ (el) (ánef) Hawaiian: nele, ʻole Hebrew: בלי (he) (bli) Hindi: ... के बिना (hi) (... ke binā) Hungarian: nélkül (hu) Icelandic: án (is) Interlingua: sin Irish: gan (ga)

Italian: senza (it) Japanese: ...なしで (ja) (...nashi de), ...無し (ja) ((...なし, ...nashi) Khmer: ដោយគ្មាន (km) (daoee kmeeun) Korean: ...없이 (ko) (...eopsi) Kurdish: bê (ku) Latin: sine (la), absque (la) Lithuanian: be (lt) Luxembourgish: ouni (lb) Macedonian: без (mk) (bez) Norwegian: uten (no) Old Provençal: ses Persian: بی (fa) (bi), بدون (fa) (bedun-e) Pitjantjatjara: wiya Polish: bez (pl) Portuguese: sem (pt) Romanian: fără (ro) Russian: без (ru) (bez) (+ genitive case) Scottish Gaelic: gun (gd), às aonais (gd) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: бѐз (sh) Roman: bèz (sh) Slovak: bez (sk) Slovene: brez (sl) Spanish: sin (es) Swedish: utan (sv) Tajik: бе (tg) (be) Thai: ไม่มี (th) (mâi mee) Turkish: -siz (tr) (-sız (tr), -suz (tr), -süz (tr)) Ukrainian: без (uk) (bez) Urdu: ... کے بنا (ur) (... ke binā) Vietnamese: không có (vi) Volapük: nen (vo) Welsh: heb (cy)

Conjunction

without

1. Unless, except (introducing a clause).
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XV:

     thou shalt be confounded withoute thou yelde me my tresoure.

   • 1913, DH Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Penguin 2006, p. 264:

     ‘Why,’ he blurted, ‘because they say I've no right to come up like this – without we mean to marry—’

   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

     But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: came · men · come · #109: without · make · def · might

Anagrams

• outwith