defenseless

1. 1.

   lacking protection or support

   “a defenseless child”

   Synonymsdefenceless

   Similarvulnerable
2. 2.

   having no protecting or concealing cover

   “naked to mine enemies”

   Synonymsnaked

   Similarunprotected
3. 3.

   lacking weapons for self-defense

   Synonymsdefenceless

   Similarunarmed

1. 1.

   without defense

   “the child was standing in the middle of the crossfire, defenselessly”

   Synonymsdefencelessdefenselesslydefencelessly

Questions about defenseless

What does defenseless mean?

defenseless means "lacking protection or support". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in defenseless?

defenseless has 3 syllables: defen-sel-ess. The stress falls on "sel". In IPA it is /dɪˈfɛnsləs/.

What is another word for defenseless?

Close synonyms include defenceless, naked, defenceless, defenceless, defenselessly. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is defenseless a common word?

defenseless is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.