Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Homeless |
HomelessAdjective1. Without nationality or citizenship; "stateless persons". 2. Physically or spiritually homeless or deprived of security; "made a living out of shepherding dispossed people from one country to another"- James Stern. Noun1. Someone with no housing; "the homeless became a problem in the large cities". 2. People who are homeless; "the homeless lived on the city streets". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "homeless" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1200. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Multilingual Slang | Hungarian (csöves ). (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Homelessness describes a condition in which a person does not have a permanent place of residence.
World Statistics
The following statistics indicate the approximate average number of homeless people at any one time. Each country has a different approach to counting homeless people, so comparisons should be made with caution.
- European Union: 3,000,000 (Unicef 1998)
- United States: 750,000 (Unicef 1998)
- Canada: 200,000 (CBC News December 1998)
- Australia: 21,000 (Unicef 1998)
- United Kingdom: crisis.org.uk estimates 400,000 without a permanent home, of which about 600 sleep on the streets (2001)
United States
In the United States in the 1980s, homelessness became an important political topic and is widely assumed to have risen dramatically at this time. However, it is very difficult to prove this assumption, because data for previous years is almost completely non-existent. It is not certain to what extent this new focus on homelessness represents an increase in the extent of the problem, or an increase in public awareness of a condition that had always existed without comment.Attempts to measure homelessness are often saddled with difficulties of ascertainment, definition, and methodology. There is no obvious direct way to count people who are defined as being 'not in a home'. Indirect methods, such as counting people who sleep in shelters or who eat at soup kitchens, provide estimates that can vary widely in degree of accuracy. Additionally, the definition of homelessness can be broadened to include, for example, a man who sleeps on a friend's couch until he finds a place of his own. Methodological questions such as, should a person who is homeless just one night in the year be included in the annual total, can also cloud the issue.
There are numerous possible causes of homelessness. Some people claim the problem is due to inadequate social services such as public housing. Some studies suggest rent control and other housing regulations create homelessness by reducing the supply of housing. Social changes, such as the movement to recognize the rights of those considered mentally ill, could lead to increased homelessness, as such people can no longer be arbitrarily rounded up and committed to mental hospitals. Such a change occurred in the United States in the early 1980s, where it is now estimated that one-third of homeless persons have some form of mental illness. Substance abuse may be a cause as well - an estimated other third of America's homeless have substance abuse problems.
Traditionally single men have constituted the overwhelming majority of the homeless. In the 1980s there was a sharp rise in the number of homeless families in certain parts of the United States (notably New York City). Most homeless families consist of an unmarried mother and children.
Sometimes the term urban outdoorsman is used as a euphemism for a homeless man.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Homelessness."
Synonyms: HomelessSynonyms: dispossessed (adj), roofless (adj), stateless (adj), homeless person (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Displacement | Adjective: displaced; Verb: unplaced, unhoused, unharbored, unestablished, unsettled; houseless, homeless; out of place, out of a situation; in the wrong place. |
Petitioner | Pauper, homeless person, hobo, bum, tramp, bindle stiff, bo, knight of the road (poverty); hippie, flower child; hard core unemployed; welfare client, welfare case. |
Poverty | Adjective: poor, indigent; poverty-stricken; badly off, poorly off, ill off; poor as a rat, poor as a church mouse, poor as a Job; fortuneless, dowerless, moneyless, penniless; unportioned, unmoneyed; impecunious; out of money, out of cash, short of money, short of cash; without a rap, not worth a rap;(money); qui n'a pas le sou, out of pocket, hard up; out at elbows, out at heels; seedy, bare-footed; beggarly, beggared; fleeced, stripped; bereft, bereaved; reduced; homeless. |
Poor man, pauper, mendicant, mumper, beggar, starveling; pauvre diable; fakir, schnorrer; homeless person. | |
Seclusion Exclusion | Estranged; unfrequented; uninhabitable, uninhabited; tenantless; abandoned; deserted, deserted in one's utmost need; unfriended; kithless, friendless, homeless; lorn, forlorn, desolate. |
Among them but not of them ; " and homeless near a thousand homes I stood "; far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife; " makes a solitude and calls it peace "; magna civitas magna solitudo; " never less alone than when alone "; " O sacred solitude! divine retreat! ". | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Homeless |
| English words defined with "homeless": alley cat ♦ bag lady, bomb out, bowery ♦ dispossessed ♦ gamin ♦ hapless, homeless person, House of refuge, Houseless ♦ Lazzaroni ♦ miserable, misfortunate ♦ pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, plight, poor, poorhouse, predicament ♦ quandary ♦ Red Cross, roofless ♦ Salvation Army, shelter, stray, street arab ♦ throwaway ♦ Unhoused ♦ waif, wretched. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "homeless": Alms-house ♦ Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 ♦ Food donations to charitable institutions, soup kitchens, and food banks ♦ gutter punk ♦ Homeless Youth ♦ National School Lunch Act ♦ Safa, Shelter/Street Night, Shot to the Curb ♦ Waifs and Strays. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | We strapped it to a homeless guy and he bolted (Seinfeld; writing credit: Andreas Lenze; Bea Schmidt) We killed a homeless man here once (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) It's a cult, like the Moonies, or the homeless. (Will & Grace; writing credit: Evan Weinstein) What's great about dating homeless girls (3000 Miles to Graceland; writing credit: Richard Recco; Demian Lichtenstein) Listen Mr. homeless man, if you don't wanna buy us the tickets and not get your ten bucks and not buy yourself a bottle of vodka, then be my guest (South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut; writing credit: Trey Parker; Matt Stone) | |
Lyrics | Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz (We Didn't Start The Fire; performing artist: Billy Joel) I drive by the homeless sleeping on a cold dark street (Something To Believe In; performing artist: Poison) Below me was a homeless man (6th Avenue Heartache; performing artist: The Wallflowers) | |
Clever | If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked? (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Homeless Ones (1954) Homeless Hare (1950) The Homeless Flea (1940) Homeless Cats (1929) Edith Ann: Homeless Go Home (1994) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Boy Scouts volunteering to pick apples from Rio Bonito area of Ft. Stanton, Roswell, NM. Apples are taken into Roswell and distributed to homeless and food kitchens. Credit: H. Parman. |  | Homeless Hector. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Speakers on behalf of the Kosovo massacred and homeless / Herblock. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Inhabitants of Soloniki left homeless by the great fire, fill the streets with furniture rescued from their burning homes. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Homeless children, Natchez, Mississippi. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Corner of dormitory, homeless men's bureau, Sioux City, Iowa. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | A card game in the recreation room of the homeless men's bureau. Sioux City, Iowa (for unattached men). Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Meal time at the homeless men's bureau (for unatttached men). Sioux City, Iowa. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Inmates working in the kitchen of homeless men's bureau. Sioux City, Iowa. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Caguas, Puerto Rico. Homeless people sleeping in the hallway of an apartment house. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Homeless man08" by Christo Pacheco Commentary: "Homeless man in Seattle, Washington." | "Homeless" by Ibon San Martin Commentary: "Just a homeless in the stairs of an underground." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | I cannot forgive a scholar his homeless despondency. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | And new waves were on the way, new waves of the dispossessed and the homeless, hardened, intent, and dangerous |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Include notable increases among homeless and runaway youth. (references) | |
Day Treatment With Abstinence Contingencies and Vouchers was developed to treat homeless crack addicts. (references) | ||
Innovative day treatment followed by work and housing dependent upon drug abstinence had a more positive effect on alcohol use, cocaine use, and days homeless. (references) | ||
Children | Brazil | Some are homeless, but the majority returned home at night. (references) |
Solomon Islands | As a result, virtually no children are homeless or abandoned. (references) | |
Russia | Local and international NGO's provide a variety of services for the homeless. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | Ukraine | Human rights groups reported cases of persons being stripped of their residence registration, evicted from their homes, and made homeless through criminal fraud or court error. (references) |
China | Prior to sensitive anniversaries, authorities in urban areas rounded up "undesirables," including the homeless, the unemployed, migrant workers, those without proper residence or work permits, petty criminals, prostitutes, and the mentally ill or persons with disabilities. (references) | |
Uzbekistan | In one case, a station's report on the plight of homeless persons, including veterans of the Afghanistan war, embarrassed the local governor; the governor of the neighboring province, in which the station's transmitter was located, promptly informed the station manager that he was fired. (references) | |
Economic History | Guinea | The demolition left over 100,000 people homeless. (references) |
Sri Lanka | Hundreds of Tamils were killed in Colombo and elsewhere, tens of thousands were left homeless, and more than 100,000 fled to south India. (references) | |
Honduras | October 1998's Hurricane Mitch--the worst natural disaster ever to strike the Western Hemisphere--left hundreds of thousands homeless, devastated the road network and other public infrastructure, and crippled certain key sectors of the economy. (references) | |
Human Rights | Congo | Unlike in previous years, there were no reports that the FAC forcibly conscripted homeless boys. (references) |
Gabon | These organizations are active mostly on behalf of women, children, persons with disabilities, and the homeless. (references) | |
Cameroon | The action involved hundreds of houses and left many families homeless; no compensation was provided for destroyed houses. (references) | |
Political Economy | Romania | There was a large number of impoverished homeless children in large cities. (references) |
HONDURAS | Many of the homeless have received new houses in an effort led by churches, NGOs and the Honduran government. (references) | |
Zimbabwe | At least 31 people were killed, thousands of villagers were left homeless, and many more suffered lasting psychological damage. (references) | |
Women | Latvia | There is one shelter in Riga where homeless women with children may reside for up to 2 months. (references) |
Worker Rights | Zimbabwe | Other persons, such as the unemployed and homeless, were recruited off the streets. (references) |
Nicaragua | The program provides housing for the 75 percent of these children who are homeless and schooling for the 60 percent who are school dropouts. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Rush Limbaugh | We have always thought the homeless knew more than we did sleeping out there in public places. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Richard Nixon | 1969-1974 | I have seen the hunger of a homeless child, the pain of a man wounded in battle, the grief of a mother who has lost her son. |
George Bush | 1989-1993 | Where everyone has a roof over his head, and where the homeless get the help they need to live in dignity. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Homeless" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 98.50% of the time. "Homeless" is used about 1,069 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) | 98.5% | 1,053 | 7,098 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.12% | 12 | 101,599 |
| Noun (plural) | 0.19% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (common) | 0.19% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,069 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "homeless": homeless child ♦ homeless people ♦ homeless person ♦ Homeless Persons ♦ Homeless Youth ♦ the homeless. Additional references. | |
| 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 "homeless"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i pastrehë (displaced person, houseless, unsheltered), i pashtëpi (unhoused). (various references) | |
Arabic | مشرد (stateless), بلا مأوي أو وطن. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | бездомен (houseless, outcast, unhoused). (various references) | |
Chinese | 无家可归. (various references) | |
Czech | bezdomovec (displaced person, dosser, stray), bez domova (houseless). (various references) | |
Dutch | thuisloos. (various references) | |
Finnish | koditon. (various references) | |
French | sans-logis, sans-abri, sans logis, sans foyer, sans abri (homeless person, houseless). (various references) | |
German | heimatlos (homelessly, unhoused). (various references) | |
Greek | άστεγοσ (arab, roofless, shelterless). (various references) | |
Hebrew | חסר בית (outcast, waif). (various references) | |
Hungarian | otthontalan, hajléktalan (dosser, houseless, roofless, to be without a roof to one's head, unhoused). (various references) | |
Indonesian | tunawisma (vagrant). (various references) | |
Italian | senza casa (houseless). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | ブ男 (beggar, poodle, pool bar, powder, puma, swimming pool, ugly man), レーニン主義 (beggar, label, labor union, lane, layer, layered cut, layered look, layman, layoff, layout, layout-system, lecture, leg guards, leggings, Leghorn, lei, Leninism, leopon, leotard, lexicon, philosophy of life, racialism, racism, rail, rain, rainbow fish, raincoat, rainy, raise, range, ranger, rape, rapier, rare, rare metal, ray, Ray-Ban, rayonne, ray-tracing, record, recorder, recording, recreation, regatta, reggae, regular, regular chain store, regular member, regulation, Regulus, requiem), 喪家 (family in mourning). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | プータロー (beggar), レゲエおじさん (beggar), そうか (Buddhist temple, family in mourning, flower, flower arrangement, flowering plant, loading, streetwalker). (various references) | |
Korean | 집 없는. (various references) | |
Manx | gyn thie. (various references) | |
Norwegian | hjemløs. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | omelesshay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | sem lar (roofless), sem casa (houseless, unhoused). (various references) | |
Romanian | oropsit (forsaken, ground-down, lorn, persecuted, tormented, tortured, unfortunate), lipsit de adãpost, fãrã cãmin. (various references) | |
Russian | бездомный (bench-warmer, dosser, houseless, outcast, roofless, stray, strayer, unhoused, waif). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | bez kuće (houseless), beskućnik (down and out, waif). (various references) | |
Spanish | sin techo (roofless). (various references) | |
Swedish | husvill. (various references) | |
Thai | ไร้ที่อยู่. (various references) | |
Turkish | vatansız (stateless), evsiz, evi barkı olmayan. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | безпритульний (houseless, outcast, ownerless, ragamuffin, shelterless, waif), бездоглядний (unattending, watchless), бездомний (houseless, outcast, roofless, stray, unhoused, waif). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | vô gia cư (outcast), không cửa không nhà (houseless, key). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "homeless": homelessness, homelessnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Homeless" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: hammelis, hemiolas, Himmels, holeless, homelesds, homelsss, Hommels, hummels. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "homeless" (pronounced hō"mlus) |
| 4 | -m l u s | aimless, blameless, bottomless, harmless, limbless, nameless, seamless, shameless, timeless, victimless. |
| 3 | -l u s | accomplice, acropolis, ageless, airless, Amaryllis, anomalous, atlas, bacillus, backless, balas, baseless, bloodless, bolus, boneless, 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, hapless, headless, heartless, helpless, hopeless, hornless, humorless, incredulous, irregardless, issueless, jealous, jobless, keyless, lactobacillus, landless, lawless, leaderless, leafless, legless, libelous, lifeless, limitless, listless, loveless, luckless, malice, marvelous, meaningless, meatless, megalopolis, merciless, meticulous, metropolis, mindless, miraculous, motherless, motionless, 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, selfless, senseless, sexless, shapeless, shiftless, skinless, sleepless, sleeveless, smokeless, solace, soulless, speechless, spineless, spotless, stainless, stateless, stimulus, stylus, surplus, syphilis, tantalus, tasteless, thankless, thoughtless, ticketless, tieless, tireless, toothless, topless, treeless, trellis, tremulous, unscrupulous, useless, valueless, 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 "e-e-h-l-m-o-s-s" | |
-2 letters: hosels, meshes, mohels, moshes, sheols, shmoes. | |
-3 letters: heels, helms, helos, hemes, holes, holms, homes, hosel, hoses, loess, loses, mohel, moles, seels, seems, semes, sheol, shoes, sloes, slosh, soles. | |
-4 letters: eels, elms, else, emes, eses, heel, helm, helo, heme, hems, hoes, hole, holm, hols, home, hose, lees, less, lose, loss, mels, mesh, mess, mhos. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-h-l-m-o-s-s" | |
+1 letter: hemolyses. | |
+2 letters: demolishes, homeliness, motherless. | |
+3 letters: demolishers. | |
+4 letters: hemodialyses, homelessness, homelinesses, motherliness, spermophiles. | |
+5 letters: demolishments, homeschoolers, humorlessness, lightsomeness, loathsomeness, mesotheliomas, nympholepsies, semimonthlies, wholesomeness. | |
| 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. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Quotations: Spoken | 13. Quotations: Speeches 14. Usage Frequency 15. Expressions 16. Expressions: Internet | 17. Translations: Modern 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
