Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Aimlessly |
AimlesslyAdverb1. In an aimless manner; "he wandered around aimlessly". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "aimlessly" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1790. (references) |
Synonym: AimlesslySynonym: without aim (adv). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Aimlessly |
| English words defined with "aimlessly": adrift, afloat, aimless ♦ bob about, bob around ♦ cast, cruise ♦ directionless, doodle, drift ♦ Flaneur ♦ GAD, gallivant ♦ jazz around ♦ kick one's heels ♦ lingerer, loiterer ♦ maunder, mope, mope around ♦ planless, potter, potter around, putter, putter around ♦ ramble, range, roam, rootless, rove, rudderless ♦ stray, swan ♦ tramp ♦ undirected ♦ vagabond ♦ wander. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "aimlessly": meander. (references) |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The person may wander aimlessly or make alarming or unusual gestures. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | MEANDER, n. To proceed sinuously and aimlessly. The word is the ancient name of a river about one hundred and fifty miles south of Troy, which turned and twisted in the effort to get out of hearing when the Greeks and Trojans boasted of their prowess. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Aimlessly" is generally used as an adverb (general) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Aimlessly" is used about 122 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adverb (general) | 100% | 122 | 29,069 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
aimlessly | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "aimlessly"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | بلا هدف (adrift, aimless, purposeless). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 目的地. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | ilman päämäärää (with no object in view). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
French | sans but (aimless). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Ziellose. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | άσκοπα. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | céltalanul (pointlessly, to no purpose). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 'に (idly, in vain, uselessly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ひょうぜ" (abruptly, casually, unexpectedly), ぶらぶら (be idle, dangle heavily, idly, lazily, loaf, loiter, stroll idly, sway to and fro, swing), ふらっと (accidentally, by chance, casually, suddenly, unexpectantly), ふらり , ど"ともなく (somehow), いたずらに (idly, in vain, uselessly), あてもなく (at random). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 목표 없. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | aimlesslyay la întâmplare (anyhow, anyway, anywise, at a venture, haply, wild), fãrã ţintã. (various references) бесцельно (purposelessly, to no end). (various references) amaçsızca, rasgele (at a venture, at haphazard, at random, by chance, desultory, freehand, haphazard, haphazardly, hit or miss, hit-and-miss, indiscriminate, offhand, promiscuous, random, scratch, stray, wild), hedefi olmadan, gayesizce. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Aimlessly" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aeamlessly. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "aimlessly" (pronounced ā"mluslē) |
| 7 | ā" m l u s l ē | shamelessly. |
| 6 | -m l u s l ē | harmlessly, seamlessly. |
| 5 | -l u s l ē | breathlessly, callously, carelessly, ceaselessly, effortlessly, endlessly, fabulously, flawlessly, frivolously, fruitlessly, helplessly, hopelessly, jealously, listlessly, marvelously, mercilessly, meticulously, mindlessly, miraculously, needlessly, painlessly, perilously, recklessly, relentlessly, restlessly, ridiculously, ruthlessly, scrupulously, tirelessly, tremulously, zealously. |
| 4 | -u s l ē | ambitiously, anonymously, anxiously, assiduously, autonomously, capriciously, cautiously, conscientiously, consciously, conspicuously, contemporaneously, contemptuously, continuously, courageously, curiously, dangerously, deliciously, disastrously, egregiously, enormously, enviously, erroneously, expeditiously, facetiously, fallaciously, famously, ferociously, furiously, generously, gloriously, graciously, gratuitously, grievously, harmoniously, hellaciously, hideously, hilariously, horrendously, humorously, incongruously, indigenously, ingeniously, instantaneously, intravenously, judiciously, laboriously, ludicrously, maliciously, mysteriously, nervously, notoriously, obviously, ominously, ostentatiously, outrageously, piously, posthumously, precariously, precipitously, previously, prodigiously, purposely, religiously, righteously, rigorously, seriously, simultaneously, spontaneously, strenuously, studiously, subconsciously, surreptitiously, suspiciously, synonymously, tediously, tenaciously, tremendously, unambiguously, unanimously, unceremoniously, unconsciously, variously, vicariously, viciously, vigorously, vociferously. |
| 3 | -s l ē | adversely, closely, concisely, conversely, densely, expressly, falsely, fiercely, grossly, immensely, intensely, inversely, loosely, nicely, parsley, perversely, precisely, princely, profusely, scarcely, sparsely, tensely, tersely, thusly. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-i-l-l-m-s-s-y" | |
-1 letter: mailless, mesially. | |
-2 letters: aimless, mesally, messily, misally, mislays, myiases, sallies, samiels, seismal, smileys. | |
-3 letters: aisles, alleys, allies, easily, emails, lamely, lassie, limeys, lisles, lyases, mailes, maills, mallei, measly, mesial, milles, mislay, missal, missay, missel, myases, myasis, salmis, samiel, slimes, slimly, slimsy, smalls, smells, smelly, smiles, smiley. | |
-4 letters: aisle, alley, almes, amies, amiss, amyls, email, essay, ileal, isles, lames, lases, limas, limes, limey, lisle, lyase, lyses, lysis, lyssa, maile, maill, mails, males, malls, masse, massy, meals, mealy, mells, mesas, messy, miles, mille, mills, mises, missy, sails, sales, sally, salmi, seals, seams, seamy, seism, sells, semis, sials, sills, silly, simas, sisal, slams, slays, slily, slime, slims, slimy, small, smell, smile, sylis, yells, yills, ylems. | |
-5 letters: ails, aims, ales, alls, ally, alme, alms, amie, amis, amyl, ayes, easy, ells, elms, elmy, eyas, ilea, ills, illy, isle, isms, lame, lams, lase, lass, lays, leal, leas, leis, less, leys, lies, lily, lima, lime, limy, lyes, lyse, maes, mail, male, mall, mass, mays, meal, mell, mels, mesa, mess, mile, mill, mils, mise, miss, sail, sale, sall, sals, same, says, seal, seam, seas, seis, sell, sels, semi, sial, sill, sima, sims, slam, slay, slim, syli, yams, yeas, yell, yill, ylem. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-i-l-l-m-s-s-y" | |
+2 letters: amaryllises, seismically. | |
+3 letters: symmetallism, systemically. | |
+4 letters: meaninglessly, symmetallisms. | |
+5 letters: simultaneously, systematically. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 69 6D 6C 65 73 73 6C 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).- .. -- .-.. . ... ... .-.. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01101001 01101101 01101100 01100101 01110011 01110011 01101100 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A i m l e s s l y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 0069 006D 006C 0065 0073 0073 006C 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)357579787185857891 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Quotations: Non-fiction | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Derivations | 9. Rhymes 10. Anagrams 11. Orthography 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
