helplessness

English

Etymology

helpless +‎ -ness

Noun

helplessness (usually uncountable, plural helplessnesses)

1. The state of being helpless.
2. A feeling of inadequacy or impotence.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0105:

     Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile ; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.

Synonyms

• impotence

Translations

state of being helpless

• Czech: bezmocnost f
• German: Hilflosigkeit (de) f
• Hebrew: אוזלת יד‎ (he)
• Norwegian: hjelpløshet m

• Polish: bezradność (pl)
• Russian: беспо́мощность (ru) f (bespómoščnostʹ)
• Swedish: hjälplöshet (sv) c

feeling of inadequacy or impotence

• German: Hilflosigkeit (de) f

See also

• powerlessness

Further reading

• helplessness in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
• helplessness in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• “impotence” in Roget's Thesaurus, T. Y. Crowell Co., 1911.