Meanings
- not comparableLacking light; unilluminated; dark.
Touch with thy flame the lightless lamp of my sorrow.
1918, Rabindranath Tagore, “Lover’s Gift and Crossing”, in Crossing, New York: Macmillan, 7, p. 853 more examples
From the besieged Ardea all in post, Borne by the trustless wings of false desire, Lust-breathed Tarquin leaves the Roman host, And to Collatium bears the lightless fire Which, in pale embers hid, lurks to aspire And girdle with embracing flames the waist Of Collatine’s fair love, Lucrece the chaste.
1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC"I can’t stand much of this," said Hurstwood, whose legs ached him painfully, as he sat down upon the miserable bunk in the small, lightless chamber allotted to him.
1900, Theodore Dreiser, Sister CarrieKnocked about on the wooden seat of the rackety rickety dim-lit bus, going past silent fields and past houses which were lightless and dead or bright and private, Mr Biswas no longer thought of the afternoon’s mission, but of the night ahead.
1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, published 2001, Part One, Chapter 5
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivewithout illumination
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-West Germanic*leuhtalaus
- Old Englishlēohtlēas
- Middle Englishlightles
- Englishlightless
From Middle English lightles, from Old English lēohtlēas, from Proto-West Germanic *leuhtalaus; equivalent to light (noun) + -less (“lacking, without”). Cognate with West Frisian ljochtleas, Dutch lichtloos, German lichtlos.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek ἀφεγγής
- ἀφεγγής (aphengḗs)lacking light
Finnish valoton
- valotonlacking light
Icelandic ljóslaus
- ljóslauslacking light
Polish bezświetlny
- bezświetlnylacking light
Cite this entry
lightless. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lightless
“lightless.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lightless. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lightless,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lightless.
Source: lightless on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.