Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Hapless |
HaplessAdjective1. Deserving or inciting pity; "a hapless victim"; "miserable victims of war"; "the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic"- Galsworthy; "piteous appeals for help"; "pitiable homeless children"; "a pitiful fate"; "couldn't rescue the poor fellow"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched life". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "hapless" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Synonyms: HaplessSynonyms: miserable (adj), misfortunate (adj), pathetic (adj), piteous (adj), pitiable (adj), pitiful (adj), poor (adj), wretched (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Adversity | Adjective: unfortunate, unblest, unhappy, unlucky; improsperous, unprosperous; hoodooed; luckless, hapless; out of luck; in trouble, in a bad way, in an evil plight; under a cloud; clouded; ill off, badly off; in adverse circumstances; poor; behindhand, down in the world, decayed, undone; on the road to ruin, on its last legs, on the wane; in one's utmost need. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Hapless |
| English words defined with "hapless": Haplessly ♦ miserable, misfortunate ♦ pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor ♦ wretched. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "hapless": Arzina. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Hapless Housewife (1993) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Having glued a hapless whitefly to a leaf, the big-eyed bug can devour its prey at its leisure. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Jack Dykinga.. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | The hapless woman shuddered |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Bolivia | Until further dramatic changes are undertaken, bribes will continue to be paid by hapless and/or conniving businesses to move their paperwork faster through the bureaucratic maze or to gain contracts, and evasion of taxes and duties will remain a common practice, but the new administration is determined to address these problems vigorously. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Hapless" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 95.83% of the time. "Hapless" is used about 192 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) | 95.83% | 184 | 22,714 |
| Noun (proper) | 4.17% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Total | 100.00% | 192 | N/A |
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 |
child hapless | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "hapless"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i pafat (ill fated, ill-omened, ill-starred, inauspicious, infelicitous, luckless, unblessed, unchancy, unfortunate, unlucky, unsuccessful, untoward), fatkeq (calamitous, fortuneless, ill fated, ill-omened, miserable, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, washout, wretched). (various references) | |
Arabic | قليل الحظ (ill fated, luckless, unlucky), شىء الطالع, بائس (afflicted, cheerless, deplorable, desolate, devil, disconsolate, distressed, forlorn, godforsaken, heel, helpless, lamentable, measly, miserable, paltry, pathetic, penurious, piteous, pitiful, poor, poverty stricken, ratty, sad, scruffy, seedy, sickly, sordid, squalid, unfortunate, unhappy, woeful, wretched). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | нещастен (abject, ill fated, ill-starred, inauspicious, lack-all, lorn, poor, sick, unblessed, unchancy, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, woeful, wretched), злочест (ill fated, miserable, star-crossed, unfortunate, unhappy, woebegone, wretched), злополучен (infelicitous, unfortunate, unlucky). (various references) | |
Chinese | 不幸 (Abject, misfortune, unfortunate, unhappiness, unlucky). (various references) | |
Czech | neblahý (baleful, calamitous, dire, fateful, harmful, ill fated, ill-starred, inauspicious, ominous, sinister, unfortunate, unlucky). (various references) | |
Finnish | kovaosainen (unlucky). (various references) | |
French | malchanceux. (various references) | |
German | unglücklich (ill fated, inauspicious, infelicitous, miserable, miserably, sad, unfortunate, unfortunately, unhappily, unhappy, unjoyous, unluckily, unlucky, unrequited, unsuccessful, untoward). (various references) | |
Greek | κακόμοιρος (miserable, wretch), άμοιροσ (unfortunate), άτυχος (out of luck), ατυχήσ (infelicitous, unfortunate, unhappy). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מסכן (miserable, pitiful, poor, poor thing, unfortunate, wretched), אומלל (disconsolate, feeble, miserable, poor, unfortunate, unhappy, wretched). (various references) | |
Hungarian | szerencsétlen (calamitous, catastrophic, disastrous, fey, ill fated, ill-starred, luckless, misadventurous, miserable, sad, star-crossed, stiff, to sink money in an unfortunate undertaking, unchancy, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, untoward, woeful, woesome, wretched), boldogtalan (infelicitous, miserable, unhappy, wretched). (various references) | |
Indonesian | malang (baleful, down, poor, unlucky). (various references) | |
Italian | sfortunato (ill fated, luckless, unfortunate, unlucky, unsuccessful), disgraziato (miserable, sorrowful, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, woeful, woesome, wretch, wretched). (various references) | |
Korean | 불운한 (unfortunate). (various references) | |
Manx | neuspeeideilagh. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aplesshay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | sem sorte (luckless, unchancy, unlucky), infeliz (devoted, disastrous, evil, ill-fated, ill-omened, ill-starred, inauspicious, infelicitous, jonah, luckless, sorrowful, unblessed, unfortunate, unhappy, unluckily, unlucky, unsuccessful, wretch, wretched), desgraado, desafortunado (luckless, unlucky). (various references) | |
Romanian | nenorocos (ill, ill fated, ill-omened, ill-starred, infelicitous, luckless, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky), nenorocit (abject, baleful, disastrous, forlorn, grievous, grub, lame duck, mean, measly, miser, miserable, pilgarlic, rascal, rotten, sad, scullion, unfortunate, unhappy, wretch, wretched). (various references) | |
Russian | несчастный (desolate, disconsolate, hard, infelicitous, lack-all, lorn, miserable, pitiable, poor, sorry, star-crossed, unblessed, unfortunate, unhappy, woeful, wretch, wretched). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | nesretan (distressful, distressing, unfortunate, unhappy). (various references) | |
Spanish | sin fortuna (die away), desventurado (timid, troubled, unfortunate, unlucky), desdichado (ill fated, ill-starred, miserable, unfortunate, unhappy, wretched), desastrado (blowzy, miserable, seedy, sorrowful, unhappy, unlucky). (various references) | |
Swedish | olycklig (afflicted, distressed, fortuneless, ill fated, ill-starred, infelicitous, luckless, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, untoward, wretched). (various references) | |
Thai | เคราะห์ร้าย (doom). (various references) | |
Turkish | tâlihsiz (cursed, disastrous, down on one's luck, evil, grief-stricken, ill fated, ill-omened, ill-starred, inauspicious, infelicitous, star-crossed, unfortunate, unlucky), bahtsız (down on one's luck, fortuneless, ill fated, unfortunate), şanssız (distressed, down on one's luck, evil, fortuneless, ill fated, ill-starred, inauspicious, luckless, out of luck, star-crossed, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, unsuccessful, untoward). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | нещасливий (calamitous, hoodoo, ill fated, ill-starred, infelicitous, luckless, unhappy, wanchancy), бідолашний (caitiff, calamitous, ill-starred, miserable). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | rủi ro (inauspicious, luckless, unfortunate), không may (baleful, inauspicious, luckless, unchancy, unfortunate, unlucky, untoward). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "hapless": haplessly, haplessness, haplessnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Hapless" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: capless, hablas, hapeless, happless, Harpalos, Hayles, helpess, hopless, hspless, shapless. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "hapless" (pronounced ha"plus) |
| 4 | -p l u s | accomplice, helpless, hopeless, shapeless, sleepless, surplus, topless, zipless. |
| 3 | -l u s | acropolis, ageless, aimless, airless, Amaryllis, anomalous, atlas, bacillus, backless, 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, feckless, fellas, fenceless, flawless, flightless, frictionless, frivolous, fruitless, Gallus, garrulous, gladiolus, godless, graceless, groundless, guileless, guiltless, hairless, harmless, headless, heartless, homeless, hornless, humorless, incredulous, irregardless, issueless, jealous, jobless, keyless, lactobacillus, landless, lawless, leaderless, leafless, legless, libelous, lifeless, limbless, limitless, listless, loveless, luckless, malice, marvelous, meaningless, meatless, megalopolis, merciless, meticulous, metropolis, mindless, miraculous, motherless, motionless, nameless, nautilus, nebulous, necklace, necropolis, needless, odorless, overzealous, Oxalis, painless, palace, paperless, peerless, pendulous, penniless, perilous, pilotless, pitiless, pointless, polis, populace, populous, powerless, priceless, prothallus, purposeless, querulous, reckless, regardless, relentless, remorseless, restless, ridiculous, riskless, rootless, rudderless, ruthless, scandalous, scoreless, scrupulous, scurrilous, seamless, selfless, senseless, sexless, shameless, shiftless, skinless, sleeveless, smokeless, solace, soulless, speechless, spineless, spotless, stainless, stateless, stimulus, stylus, syphilis, tantalus, tasteless, thankless, thoughtless, ticketless, tieless, timeless, tireless, toothless, treeless, trellis, tremulous, unscrupulous, useless, valueless, victimless, voiceless, warrantless, weightless, windlass, windowless, wireless, witless, wordless, worthless, zealous. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: plashes. | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-h-l-p-s-s" | |
-1 letter: alephs, hassel, hassle, lapses, lashes, pashes, passel, phases, saleps, selahs, sepals, shales, shapes, sheals, shleps, spales, splash. | |
-2 letters: aleph, apses, ashes, ephas, hales, hasps, heals, heaps, helps, lapse, lases, leaps, leash, pales, pases, passe, peals, phase, plash, pleas, salep, sales, salps, seals, selah, sepal, shale, shape, sheal, sheas, shlep, slaps, slash, spaes. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-h-l-p-s-s" | |
+1 letter: haploses, pathless, plashers, splashed, splasher, splashes. | |
+2 letters: asphodels, earlships, haplessly, phalluses, planishes, plashiest, shapeless, splashers, splashier, sulphates. | |
+3 letters: alphosises, basophiles, blasphemes, calipashes, fishplates, horseplays, lampshells, omphaloses, parfleshes, pearlashes, phylaxises, planishers, playhouses, plowshares, shapeliest, showplaces, slapdashes, splashiest, spleuchans, symphyseal, synalephas, telophases, whiplashes. | |
+4 letters: apostleship, asphaltites, battleships, blasphemers, blasphemies, blasphemous, dealerships, diplophases, haplessness, homoplasies, hospitalise, houseplants, leaderships, legateships, misshapenly, perishables, platyfishes, shapelessly, shapeliness, shinplaster, sleepyheads, sphalerites, spheroplast, splashiness, synaloephas. | |
| 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. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
