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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

homeless.

Lacking a permanent place of residence.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈhoʊmlɪs/General-American/ˈhoʊmləs/General-American

  1. Lacking a permanent place of residence.

    not-comparable
    Whenever I pass the park, I see the homeless people sleeping on the benches.

  2. Containing no place that might be called home.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos Proto-Indo-European *teḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-éyti Proto-Indo-European *tḱéytibf. Proto-Indo-European *tḱey- Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *tḱóymos Proto-Germanic *haimaz Proto-West Germanic *haim Old English hām 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 Old English hāmlēas Middle English *homles English homeless From Middle English *homles, *hamles, from Old English hāmlēas (“homeless”), equivalent to home + -less. Cognate with Dutch heemloos, Danish hjemløs (“homeless”), Swedish hemlös (“homeless”). Compare also German heimatlos (“homeless”), Icelandic heimilislaus (“homeless”), West Frisian dakleas (“homeless”, literally “having no roof, roofless”).

noun/ˈhoʊmlɪs/General-American/ˈhoʊmləs/General-American

  1. A person who is homeless.

    nonstandard · offensive · possibly
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos Proto-Indo-European *teḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-éyti Proto-Indo-European *tḱéytibf. Proto-Indo-European *tḱey- Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *tḱóymos Proto-Germanic *haimaz Proto-West Germanic *haim Old English hām 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 Old English hāmlēas Middle English *homles English homeless From Middle English *homles, *hamles, from Old English hāmlēas (“homeless”), equivalent to home + -less. Cognate with Dutch heemloos, Danish hjemløs (“homeless”), Swedish hemlös (“homeless”). Compare also German heimatlos (“homeless”), Icelandic heimilislaus (“homeless”), West Frisian dakleas (“homeless”, literally “having no roof, roofless”).

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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.