helpless

English

Etymology

From Middle English helples, from Old English *helplēas (“helpless”) from Proto-Germanic *helpōlausaz, equivalent to help +‎ -less. Compare Dutch hulpeloos (“helpless”), German hilflos (“helpless”), Swedish hjälplös (“helpless”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛlplɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: help‧less

Adjective

helpless (comparative more helpless, superlative most helpless)

1. Unable to defend oneself.
   • 1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?

     Then when you find yourself lyin' helpless in her arms

     You know you really love a woman

2. Unable to act without help.
3. Uncontrollable.

   a helpless urge

4. (obsolete) From which there is no possibility of being saved.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

     For, while they fly that gulf's devouring jawes,
     They on the rock are rent and sunck in helplesse wawes.

Translations

unable to defend oneself

• Arabic: عاجز (eajiz)
• Bulgarian: безпомощен (bg) (bezpomošten)
• Catalan: indefens
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無助的／无助的 (zh), 无助的 (zh) (wúzhù), 無力的／无力的 (zh), 无力的 (zh) (wúlì de)

• Danish: hjælpeløs (da)
• Dutch: hulpeloos (nl)
• Esperanto: senhelpa
• Finnish: avuton (fi)
• Georgian: უმწეო (umc̣eo)
• German: hilflos (de)
• Hungarian: tehetetlen (hu)
• Ido: senhelpa
• Igbo: enweghị enyemaka
• Irish: fágtha
• Italian: indifeso (it)
• Japanese: 無力な (ja) (むりょくな, muryoku na)
• Khmer: ដែលឥតអនុភាព (dael ət a’nu’pʰiep)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 무력한 (mulyeoghan)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: ,

• Latin: inops
• Malagasy: afa-manoatra
• Maltese: hilflose
• Maori: paraheahea
• Portuguese: indefeso (pt)
• Romanian: neajutorat (ro) m
• Russian: беспо́мощный (ru) (bespómoščnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бе̏спомоћан

  Roman: bȅspomoćan (sh)

• Spanish: indefenso (es)
• Swedish: hjälplös (sv)
• Ukrainian: безсилий (uk) m (bezsylyj), безпомічний (uk) (bezpomičnyj)
• West Frisian: helpleas

unable to act without help

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無助／无助 (zh) (wú zhù)

• Finnish: avuton (fi)
• French: désemparé (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 無力 (ja) (muryoku)
• Maori: mohemohe, paraheahea
• Spanish: incapaz (es)

uncontrollable — see uncontrollable

Further reading

• “helpless”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “helpless”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.