Feckless

Definitions: Feckless

Feckless

Adjective

1. Not fit to assume responsibility.

2. Generally incompetent and ineffectual; "feckless attempts to repair the plumbing"; "inept handling of the account".

Date "feckless" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1886. (references)

Note: Feckless \Feck"less\, adjective. [Perh. corruption of effectless.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonym: Feckless

Synonym: inept (adj). (additional references)

Crosswords: Feckless

English words defined with "feckless": fecklessly. (references)

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	And he was feckless! And he was hopeless! (Oliver Twist; writing credit: Alan Bleasdale; Charles Dickens)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Music	Feckless Beast (reference) Mirth & Feckless (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Feckless" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Feckless" is used about 69 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
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	69	40,280

Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "feckless": ever-feckless.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; 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.

Language		Translations for "feckless"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		i paefektshëm (effectless, ineffective, inefficacious, inefficient, inoperative), i kotë (footling, futile, good for nothing, needless, otiose, pointless, unavailing, useless, vain, wanton, worthless). (various references)

Arabic		‏فارع (rakish, soaring), ‏غير فعال (feeble, inactive, ineffectual, inefficient, inert, inoperative, passive), ‏عاجز (decrepit, disabled, effete, helpless, incapable, incompetent, ineffective, inert, infirm, invalid, paralysed, paralyzed, poor, powerless, unable), ‏ضعيف (atonic, cold, crazy, deficient, delicate, dim, emaciated, enervate, faint, feeble, flabby, flagging, fragile, frail, haggard, helpless, impotent, inaudible, infirm, invertebrate, lame, languid, languorous, lank, lean, limp, little, low, lower, nerveless, pale, powered, powerless, puny, rickety, run down, scant, scrawny, slender, slight, slim, small, soft, softy, streaked, supine, tenuous, thin, thready, toothless, unsubstantial, wan, weak, weakened, weakling, weakly, wimp, wishy washy). (various references)

Bulgarian		некадърен (dismal, dud, incapable, incompetent, ineffective, inefficient, shiftless, wet, worthless), безпомощен (helpless, lost, shiftless, silly, stranded, unable). (various references)

Chinese		软弱 (fecklessness). (various references)

Czech		slabošský (effete, flabby). (various references)

Farsi		سست (Atonic, Effeminate, Floppy, Frail, Groggy, Inactive, Indolent, Insecure, Languid, Lax, Lethargic, Loose, Mild, Rattletrap, Remiss, Rickety, Shaky, Slack, Sleazy, Slender, Slothful, Supine, Tardy, Tepid, Torpid, Weak), بی اثر (Inactive, Indfferent, Ineffective, Ineffectual, Nude, Nugatory). (various references)

French		tête sans cervelle, inepte, inefficace, incapable. (various references)

German		schwach (brittle, dim, dimly, docile, dull, faint, faintly, feeble, feebly, flimsily, flimsy, fragile, frail, impotent, infirm, infirmly, lame, languid, light, low, obscurely, poor, sinewed, slack, slender, slight, slightly, soft, thinly, uncertain, unsound, weak, weakly, wishy washy). (various references)

Greek		μάταιοσ (futile, idle, inane, nugatory, otiose, pointless, vain), άσκοποσ (aimless, goalless, impractical, inane, needless, objectless, pointless, purportless, purposeless), ασθενήσ (ailing, ill, infirm, patient, piping, pithless, sick, unwell). (various references)

Hebrew		חלש ולא אחראי. (various references)

Hungarian		értéktelen (barren, bum, chaffy, cheap, drossy, misbegotten, null, off-cast, paltry, pelting, punk, screwy, trashy, twopenny-halfpenny, unhelpful, unworthy, valueless, vile, worthless). (various references)

Italian		inefficiente (ineffective, inefficient, shiftless). (various references)

Korean		무기� �한. (various references)

Manx		gyn spyrryd (boneless, craven), gyn cooney (helpless, singly, unaided). (various references)

Pig Latin		ecklessfay

Portuguese		fraco (adynamic, crank, deedless, defective, enervate, failing, faint, feeble minded, flabby, flaccid, flimsy, frail, infirm, lank, light, little, low, milk and water, pimping, pony, puny, reckling, scrannel, shaky, sickly, slight, spineless, spiritless, watery, weak, weak-kneed, weakly, wishy washy), fevereiro (February), fútil (conceited, coxcombical, frivolity, frivolous, frothy, futile, nugatory, peddling, piddling, silliness, slight, trifling, vain), indeciso (blear, double-minded, doubtfully, drawn, fitful, half hearted, halve, indecisive, index, irresolution, laconic, pendant, pending, shilly shally, suspended, undecided, undetermined, unresolved, unsettled, unsolved, unsteady, up in the air, vacillating, vague, wavering), impotente (forceless, impotent, powerless, spado). (various references)

Romanian		slab (adynamic, angular, bad, cold, cranky, crazy, dicky, dim, Dotty, dull, faint, faintly, feeble, feebly, female, flabby, flaccid, flat, fleshless, flimsy, footless, forceless, frail, gaunt, groggy, helpless, impotent, inner, jaded, jejune, languid, languishing, languorous, lax, lean, Lenten, light, loose, low, meager, meagre, mean, mild, milk and water, namby-pamby, nerveless, one horse, pale, peaked, penny-a-line, pimping, poor, poorly, powerless, quiet, remotely, rickety, scraggy, scrawny, shaky, sickly, silly, skinny, slack, slight, small, soft, sorry, spare, squeal, stringent, tender, thin, washy, weak, weakly), incapabil (effete, impotent, incapable, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficient, insufficient, shiftless, unable, unapt, unequal, unfit). (various references)

Russian		бесполезный (abortive, bootless, fatuous, fiddling, fruitless, futile, good for nothing, idle, inutile, naught, needless, nugatory, of no avail, otiose, unavailing, unhelpful, unprofitable, useless, valueless, virtueless). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		slab (dickey, dicky, feeble, flabby, frail, infirm, languid, languorous, low, meager, meagre, nerveless, poor, powerless, punk, remote, short, sickly, slim, tenuous, thin, trick, undernourished, unlikely, washy, weak), nepažljiv (abstracted, heedless, inadvertent, inattentive, negligent, thoughtless, unheeding, unmindful), nemoćan (feeble, infirm, powerless, sick, unable, weak), nemaran (careless, casual, debonair, delinquent, devil may care, easygoing, floppy, inattentive, incurious, indifferent, neglectful, negligent, reckless, slack, slipshod, sloppy). (various references)

Spanish		irresponsable (irresponsible, unjustifiable, unwarrantable), casquivano (bird brained, bird witted, empty headed, harebrained, light-headed, rattle-brained, whippersnapper). (various references)

Swedish		hjälplös (helpless, incapable, prostrate). (various references)

Thai		ซึ่งไร้ประสิทธิ� าพ (inefficient). (various references)

Turkish		sorumsuz (derelict, flighty, irresponsible, trigger-happy, unaccountable, unamenable, undutiful), kayıtsız (apathetic, apathetical, carefree, careless, devil may care, footloose, forgetful, freewheeling, impassive, incurious, indifferent, listless, nonchalant, reckless, regardless, rough and ready, unconditional, uninscribed, unmindful, unrecorded, unregistered), cansız (apathetic, apathetical, bloodless, colorless, dead, dead pan, dying, exanimate, flagging, heartless, inanimate, lackadaisical, lackluster, lacklustre, languid, lifeless, listless, poky, sapless, singsong, sluggish, soulless, spiritless, stagnant, toneless, torpid, weak, wishy washy, wishywashy), beceriksiz (awkward, bungler, bungling, clumsy, Duff, duffer, flat-footed, fumbling, gauche, gawky, ham-fisted, ham-handed, heavy-handed, helpless, impractical, inapt, incompetent, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, inept, inexpert, left handed, lubber, maladroit, manque, ne'er do well, never-do-well, oaf, oafish, resourceless, rude, shiftless, slouch, unaccomplished, unhandy, unskilful, untalented), aciz (cheap, helpless, impotent, incapable, ineffectual, powerless, unable, weak). (various references)

Ukranian		марний (bootless, frustrate, futile, idle, naught, needless, nugatory, of no effect, otiose, sleeveless, unavailable, vain), лінивий (floppy, lazy, lubberly, ornery, otiose, picktooth, pokey, poky, supine), безпорадний (helpless, overcome, shiftless). (various references)

Vietnamese		yếu ớt; vô hiệu quả, vô ích; vô tích sự thiếu suy nghĩ, không cẩn thận; thiếu trách nhiệm. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	improvidus. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "feckless": fecklessly, fecklessness, fecklessnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Feckless" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Eckels, Eckles, Eckleys, feckle, fecless, feclke, freckless. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "feckless" (pronounced fe"klus)
5	-e" k l u s	necklace, reckless.
4	-k l u s	backless, luckless, riskless, smokeless, thankless.
3	-l u s	accomplice, acropolis, ageless, aimless, airless, Amaryllis, anomalous, atlas, bacillus, balas, baseless, blameless, bloodless, bolus, boneless, bottomless, boundless, brainless, breathless, calculus, callous, callus, careless, Carolus, cashless, ceaseless, childless, classless, cloudless, clueless, Colas, colorless, cordless, countless, cutlass, defenseless, digitalis, directionless, doubtless, driverless, ductless, earless, effortless, endless, expressionless, eyeless, fabulous, faceless, fatherless, fearless, featherless, featureless, fellas, fenceless, flawless, flightless, frictionless, frivolous, fruitless, Gallus, garrulous, gladiolus, godless, graceless, groundless, guileless, guiltless, hairless, hapless, harmless, headless, heartless, helpless, homeless, hopeless, hornless, humorless, incredulous, irregardless, issueless, jealous, jobless, keyless, lactobacillus, landless, lawless, leaderless, leafless, legless, libelous, lifeless, limbless, limitless, listless, loveless, malice, marvelous, meaningless, meatless, megalopolis, merciless, meticulous, metropolis, mindless, miraculous, motherless, motionless, nameless, nautilus, nebulous, necropolis, needless, odorless, overzealous, Oxalis, painless, palace, paperless, peerless, pendulous, penniless, perilous, pilotless, pitiless, pointless, polis, populace, populous, powerless, priceless, prothallus, purposeless, querulous, regardless, relentless, remorseless, restless, ridiculous, rootless, rudderless, ruthless, scandalous, scoreless, scrupulous, scurrilous, seamless, selfless, senseless, sexless, shameless, shapeless, shiftless, skinless, sleepless, sleeveless, solace, soulless, speechless, spineless, spotless, stainless, stateless, stimulus, stylus, surplus, syphilis, tantalus, tasteless, thoughtless, ticketless, tieless, timeless, tireless, toothless, topless, treeless, trellis, tremulous, unscrupulous, useless, valueless, victimless, voiceless, warrantless, weightless, windlass, windowless, wireless, witless, wordless, worthless, zealous, zipless.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "c-e-e-f-k-l-s-s"
	-2 letters: cleeks, flecks, sleeks.
	-3 letters: cleek, clefs, feces, fecks, feels, fesse, fleck, flees, keefs, keels, leeks, seeks, seels, selfs, skees, sleek.
	-4 letters: cees, cels, cess, clef, eels, ekes, elks, else, eses, feck, feel, fees, fess, flee, keef, keel, kefs, leek, lees, leke, leks, less, secs, seek, seel, sees, self, sels, skee.
	-5 letters: cee, cel, eel.
	Words containing the letters "c-e-e-f-k-l-s-s"
	+2 letters: fecklessly, fickleness.
	+4 letters: fecklessness, ficklenesses.
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.