Needless

Definition: Needless

Needless

Adjective

1. Unnecessary and unwarranted; "a strikers' tent camp...was burned with needless loss of life".

Date "needless" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Synonyms: Needless

Synonyms: gratuitous (adj), uncalled-for (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Redundancy	Superfluous, unnecessary, needless, supervacaneous, uncalled for, to spare, in excess; over and above; (remainder); de trop; adscititious; (additional); supernumerary; (reserve); on one's hands, spare, duplicate, supererogatory, expletive; un peu fort.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	Either you all give yourselves up and let us beat you up a little - though not too much, because we are firmly opposed to needless violence - or we blow up this entire planet and one or two others that we noticed on the way over. (The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy; writing credit: Douglas Adams; John Lloyd) To prevent needless killing and destruction! (The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure; writing credit: George Kashdan) Needless to say, the Germans couldn't give a damn about the Boers. ('Breaker' Morant; writing credit: Kenneth Ross; Jonathan Hardy) Yeah. Think of all the needless suffering that could've ended there! (Lethal Weapon 2; writing credit: Shane Black;)
Lyrics	So needless to say ("Take On Me"; performing artist: A-ha) Needless to say, she left me, ("Code Red"; performing artist: Prince)
Tongue Twisters	I need not your needles, they're needless to me; for kneading of noodles, 'twere needless, you see; but did my neat knickers but need to be kneed, I then should have need of your needles indeed. (references; author: unknown)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Careless Word...a Needless Sinking (reference) Freefall: The Needless Destruction of Eastern Air Lines and the Valiant Struggle to Save It (reference) Needless Casualties of War (reference) Needless Deaths in the Gulf War - Civilian Casualties During the Air Campaign and Violations of the Laws of War (A Middle East Watch Report) (reference) The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962: Needless or Necessary? (reference) (more book examples)

Music	The Needless Kiss (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Benjamin Franklin	Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.
Confucius	Things that are done, it is needless to speak about... things that are past, it is needless to blame.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Gulliver's Travels	Swift, Jonathan	From this way of reasoning the author drew several moral applications useful in the conduct of life, but needless here to repeat.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		In addition, donors are provided with confusing test results and are subjected to needless anxiety and medical expense, brought about by the mistaken thinking that they may have a contagious disease. (references)
Business		Needless to say, long-term improvements in Russia's economic situation will certainly have some positive impact on IPR observance. (references)
Economic History	Lebanon	However, the government's attitude toward some trade and investment issues and needless red tape hurt Lebanon's image as a country open for investment. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	TELESCOPE, n. A device having a relation to the eye similar to that of the telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague us with a multitude of needless details. Luckily it is unprovided with a bell summoning us to the sacrifice.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Jimmy Carter	1977-1981	The new Paperwork Reduction Act centralizes, in OMB, oversight of all agencies' information requirements and strengthens OMB's authority to eliminate needless forms.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Needless" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 98.73% of the time. "Needless" is used about 552 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)	98.73%	545	11,376
Noun (proper)	1.27%	7	133,076
Total	100.00%	552	N/A

Expressions using "needless": needless to say ♦ needless to say that. 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 "needless"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Afrikaan		onnodig. (various references)

Albanian		i panevojshëm (gratuitous, superfluous, unnecessary), i padobishëm (bootless, de trop, fruitless, good for nothing, ineffective, ineffectual, inutile, kill time, marginal, naught, ne'er do well, no earthly use, nugatory, otiose, riffraff, useless), i kotë (feckless, footling, futile, good for nothing, otiose, pointless, unavailing, useless, vain, wanton, worthless). (various references)

Arabic		‏غير ضروري (dispensable, superfluous, uncalled for, undue, unnecessary). (various references)

Bulgarian		ненужен (supernumerary, trashy, uncalled for, unnecessary), непотребен (waste), безсмислен (absurd, aimless, futile, inane, insensate, inutile, meaningless, mindless, nonsense, nonsensical, pointless, preposterous, purposeless, senseless, sorry, stupid, tomfool, unmeaning, vacuous, vain), безполезен (baubling, bootless, fruitless, futile, ineffective, inutile, naught, no good, nugatory, otiose, pointless, sorry, superfluous, trashy, unavailing, unhelpful, up the spout, useless, vain, void, worthless), излишен (de trop, excrescent, expletive, otiose, pleonastic, redundant, spare, superabundant, superfluous, supernumerary, supervacaneous, surplus, unnecessary, unwanted, waste). (various references)

Chinese		多余 (redundancy, unnecessary), 不必要 (unnecessary). (various references)

Czech		nepotřebný (good for nothing, no earthly use, redundant, unnecessary, unwanted, useless), zbyteèný (false, futile, good for nothing, gratuitous, senseless, unnecessary, useless, wasted, wasteful). (various references)

Dutch		onnodig. (various references)

Esperanto		nenecesa, senbezona. (various references)

Farsi		بی نیاز. (various references)

Finnish		turha (abortive, fruitless, futile, of no use, unnecessary, useless, vain), tarpeeton (superfluous, uncalled-for, undue, unnecessary, useless), tarpeen (superfluous, uncalled-for, undue, unnecessary, useless), joutava (idle, useless). (various references)

French		inutile. (various references)

German		unno.tig, unnötig (gratuitous, gratuitously, non essential, uncalled for, unjustifiably, unnecessarily, unnecessary), bedürfnislos (frugal, humble, undemanding), überflüssig (expendable, futile, gratuitous, gratuitously, redundant, spare, superfluous, superfluously, unnecessary, useless, waste). (various references)

Greek		περιττόσ (dispensable, odd, redundant, supererogatory, superfluous, uncalled for, unnecessary), άσκοποσ (aimless, feckless, goalless, impractical, inane, objectless, pointless, purportless, purposeless), άχρηστοσ (bootless, drossy, dud, has been, ne'er do well, otiose, stuff, trashy, useless, waste, worthless). (various references)

Hebrew		מיותר (excrescent, gratuitous, otiose, redundant, spare, superfluous, unnecessary). (various references)

Hungarian		szükségtelen (redundant, uncalled for, unnecessary), fölösleges (gratuitous, left over, otiose, redundant, spare, unavailable, unavailing, unnecessary). (various references)

Indonesian		tak berguna (castaway, useless). (various references)

Italian		inutile (bootless, good for nothing, idle, in vain, objectless, pointless, unavailing, unfit, unnecessary, unsuitable, unusable, useless, vain). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		要らぬ . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		いらぬ. (various references)

Korean		필�" 없�". (various references)

Manx		neuymmychagh. (various references)

Pig Latin		eedlessnay.(various references)

Portuguese		inútil (abortive, bootless, castaway, empty, fruitless, futile, good hearted, idle, naught, nohow, nugget, purposeless, rat-trap, sterile, superfluous, supervacaneous, trashy, unavailable, unavailing, unnecessary, unproductive, unprofitable, useless, vain, worthless). (various references)

Romanian		nu e nevoie sã spun cã (needless to say that). (various references)

Russian		ненужный (de trop, supervacaneous, unnecessary, unneeded, unwanted, waste). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		nekoristan (inutile, unserviceable), uzaludan (bootless, futile, ineffective, unavailing, unfruitful, use: no earthly use, vain, wasted). (various references)

Spanish		innecesario (unnecessary). (various references)

Swedish		onödigt (needlessly, unnecessarily). (various references)

Thai		ไม่จำเป็น. (various references)

Turkish		lüzumsuz (excessive, inessential, redundant, unnecessary, unneeded), gereksiz (digressive, excrescent, gratuitous, idle, indecent, indiscreet, inessential, no, non essential, nonessential, otiose, redundant, supererogatory, superfluous, uncalled for, unjustifiable, unnecessary, unneeded, unneedful), boşuna (empty, for nothing, frantic, gainless, in vain, no dice, no go, no good, of no avail, otiose, to no avail, to no end, unavailing, unnecessarily, useless, vainly). (various references)

Ukranian		некорисний (castaway, dud, fiddling, fruitless, inutile, nugatory, of no avail, of no use, otiose, unavailing, valueless, without avail), непотрібний (otiose, uncalled for, unnecessary, waste), марний (bootless, feckless, frustrate, futile, idle, naught, nugatory, of no effect, otiose, sleeveless, unavailable, vain), зайвий (excessive, excrescent, nimious, odd, otiose, over, redundant, spare, superfluous, surplus). (various references)

Vietnamese		vô ích (bootless, excrescent, futile, inutile, naught, unavailing, unhelpful, unnecessary, unrequired, unwanted, useless, vainly), thừa (redundant, spare, superfluous, supervacaneous, unnecessary), không cần thiết (dispensable, non-essential, supererogatory, superfluous, supervacaneous, unnecessary, unneeded). (various references)

Welsh		dieisiau (unnecessary), dianghenraid (unnecessary), afraid (unnecessary). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "needless": needlessly, needlessness, needlessnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Needless" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: naullses, needlers. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: lessened.
	Words within the letters "d-e-e-e-l-n-s-s"
	-1 letter: endless, needles.
	-2 letters: lensed, lenses, lessee, lessen, needle, seeled, sensed.
	-3 letters: deles, denes, dense, lends, lenes, lense, needs, seeds, seels, sends, sense, sleds, sneds.
	-4 letters: dees, dele, dels, dene, dens, eels, elds, else, ends, eses, lees, lend, lens, less, need, ness, seed, seel, seen, sees, sels, send, sene, sled, sned.
	-5 letters: dee, del, den, eds, eel, eld, els, end, ens, ess, led, lee, nee, see, sel, sen.
	Words containing the letters "d-e-e-e-l-n-s-s"
	+1 letter: selenides.
	+2 letters: edibleness, elatedness, fenderless, idlenesses, leadenness, lewdnesses, needlessly, nosebleeds, slenderest.
	+3 letters: belatedness, blessedness, defenseless, elderliness, endlessness, heedfulness, learnedness, needfulness, newsdealers, relatedness, relaxedness, slenderizes, slenderness.
	+4 letters: adolescences, cladogeneses, deadlinesses, delicatessen, delusiveness, desolateness, detailedness, dilutenesses, doublenesses, ediblenesses, elatednesses, goldennesses, headlessness, heedlessness, leadennesses, needlefishes, needlessness, readableness, secludedness, skeletonised, wildernesses.
	+5 letters: belatednesses, blessednesses, collectedness, deathlessness, deceitfulness, defenselessly, delicatessens, delightedness, desirableness, dolefulnesses, dreamlessness, durablenesses, elderlinesses, endlessnesses, endonucleases, endoskeletons, essentialized, godlessnesses, godlikenesses, heedfulnesses, learnednesses, limitednesses, needfulnesses, orderlinesses, relatednesses, relaxednesses, resplendences, slendernesses, stiltednesses, unsettledness.
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.