helplessness

Other forms of helplessness

plural

helplessnesses·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about helplessness

What does helplessness mean?

helplessness means "powerlessness revealed by an inability to act". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in helplessness?

helplessness has 3 syllables: hel-ples-sness. The stress falls on "hel". In IPA it is /ˈhɛlpləsnəs/.

What is another word for helplessness?

Close synonyms include weakness, impuissance. 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 helplessness a common word?

helplessness 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.