flightless.
Unable to fly.
Meaning & usage
Unable to fly. Describing kinds of birds that normally cannot fly, such as the penguin, ostrich, and emu.
The indigenous fauna of Australia and New Zealand featured an especially interesting array of flightless birds.
Unable to fly. Describing an individual bird that normally would be able to fly but in this case cannot, such as an injured sparrow.
The animal shelter has a flightless sparrow named Shiny, who seems to make up for his disability by being an avid runner.
Unable to fly. Suddenly deprived of a scheduled (airline) flight by its cancellation.
Oh great, some wind is blowing in Chicago, so now I'm flightless in Seattle, because this airline can't cope!
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *plew- Proto-Indo-European *plewk- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *pléwketi Proto-Germanic *fleuganą Proto-West Germanic *fleugan Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Germanic *-þiz Proto-West Germanic *-þi Proto-West Germanic *fluhti Old English flyht Middle English flight English flight Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Proto-Germanic *-lausaz Proto-West Germanic *-laus Old English -lēas Middle English -les English -less English flightless From flight + -less.
Try it on your idea.
flightless has 10 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.