Meanings
- uncountableThe state or condition of having no possessions.
Their rebellion . . . translated their dispossession into the free possessionlessness of childhood.
1992, Francesca Polletta, “Politicizing Childhood: The 1980 Zurich Burns Movement”, in Social Text, number 33, page 952 more examples
Olivi in his commentary on the Apocalypse sanctified Francisan poverty, in the extreme form of absolute penury as well as possessionlessness attributed by the Franciscan Spirituals to St. Francis.
1996, Gordon Leff, “Review of Olivi's Peaceable Kingdom. A Reading of the Apocalypse Commentary by David Burr”, in The English Historical Review, volume 111, number 442, page 682More appropriate here is a definition of poverty as "possessionlessness," an understanding conveyed by the Pāli term akiñcana ("without anything," "lacking possessions").
1996, Mavis Fenn, “Two Notions of Poverty in the Pāli Canon,”, in Journal of Buddhist Ethics, volume 3, page 113
Origin
- Englishpossession
- Proto-Indo-European*lewh₁-
- Proto-Indo-European*lewHs-
- Proto-Germanic*leusaną
- Proto-Germanic*lausaz
- Englishpossessionless
- Englishpossessionlessness
From possessionless + -ness.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
possessionlessness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/possessionlessness
“possessionlessness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/possessionlessness. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “possessionlessness,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/possessionlessness.
Source: possessionlessness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.