Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Spineless |
SpinelessAdjective1. Weak in willpower. 2. Lacking courage or vitality; "he was a yellow gutless worm"; "a spineless craven fellow". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "spineless" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1907. (references) |
Synonyms: SpinelessSynonyms: gutless (adj), namby-pamby (adj), wishy-washy (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: gutsy (adj). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Spineless |
| English words defined with "spineless": Anacanthous, Ariocarpus fissuratus ♦ gutless ♦ living rock, Lophophora williamsii ♦ mescal, mezcal ♦ order Synentognathi ♦ peyote ♦ Synentognathi. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "spineless": Tcode. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Because then he'll want to get back together but I'll have to tell him we're not getting back together but I can't do that over the phone so I'll have to go over there and then we will get back together because I'm spineless and completely co-dependent! (Caroline in the City; writing credit: Angela Carneiro) No longer is he spineless and wallowing in self pity. (The 10th Kingdom; writing credit: Simon Moore) | |
Clever | It is easy to be flexible when one is spineless! (references; author: unknown) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | 1 acre of Anecanteria Spineless Cactus. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Field of Melrose variety Spineless Cactus. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Spineless" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 97.50% of the time. "Spineless" is used about 40 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) | 97.5% | 39 | 55,036 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.5% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 40 | 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 |
spineless | 10 |
spineless yucca | 6 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "spineless"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | pa gjemba (unarmed). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | لا فقاري بدون عمود فقري, ضعيف الشخصية (wishy washy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | слаб (defective, dim, effeminate, faint, feeble, flabby, flaccid, flat, flimsy, impotent, irretentive, lame, lean, light, limp, liny, low, meager, meagre, mean, mild, nerveless, off, pale, poor, puny, queasy, rickety, scanty, scrannel, sick, sinewless, slack, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, slow, sluggish, small, soft, spare, tender, tenuous, thin, thready, unable, washy, watery, weak, weakish, weakly), безхарактерен (characterless, molluscous, yellow), безгръбначен (boneless, invertebrate, molluscous, pithless), без бодли. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | zbabìlý (chicken hearted, cowardly, Craven, faint-hearted, lily livered, milk-livered, white livered, yellow), bezpáteřný, bezobratlý (invertebrate), bezcharakterní (unprincipled). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | selkärangaton (invertebrate), ryhditön (slouching, with a poor carriage, with no backbone). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | sans caractère, mou, invertébré. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | wirbellos (invertebrate). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | άνευροσ (nerveless, sinewless), ασπόνδυλοσ (invertebrate), ψόφιοσ (dead, gutless). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | חסר ש"ר", חסר אופי, "פכפך (fickle, fitful, inconstant, temperamental, turncoat, unsettled, wayward). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | gerinctelen (boneless, invertebrate, pithless, supple). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | smidollato (soft, weak-kneed), invertebrato (invertebrate). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 骨無し (boneless), 意気地のない (backboneless, cowardly, timid, weak-kneed). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ほねなし (boneless), いくじのない (backboneless, cowardly, timid, weak-kneed). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | sugganeagh. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | inelessspay sem espinhos, sem espinhas, sem energia (boneless, characterless, nerveless, pithless, sapless, slack, sluggish, spiritless, supine), sem coragem (chicken-hearted), mole (boneless, flaccid, floppy, limp, loppy, molluscous, mushy, pappy, pithless, pulpy, sleepy, sluggish, soapy, soft, spiritless, squashy, supine, tender, weak), fraco (adynamic, crank, deedless, defective, enervate, failing, faint, feckless, feeble, flabby, flaccid, flimsy, frail, infirm, lank, light, little, low, milk-and-water, pimping, pony, puny, reckling, scrannel, shaky, sickly, slight, spiritless, watery, weak-kneed, weakly, wishy-washy), de caráter débil. (various references) nevertebrat (invertebrate), molatic (flabby, heavy, remiss, slow, weak), molâu (flabby, spiritless), mãmãligos, mãlãieţ (luscious, mellow), fãrã energie (dead alive, languid, lifeless, tame-spirited). (various references) беспозвоночный. (various references) bez bodlji, beskičmen. (various references) sin carácter (characterless, supine), ñoño (characterless, fussy, namby-pamby, senile). (various references) ryggradslös (invertebrate), hållningslös (vacillant). (various references) omurgasız (invertebrate, keelles), kılçıksız, iradesiz (feeble minded, flabby, flaccid, invertebrate, irresolute, non compos, non compos mentis, simple, volitionless, weak, weak-kneed, weak-minded), cesaretsiz (dispirited, faint, fainthearted, spiritless, timid, weak-spirited). (various references) що ма" слабкий хребет, безхребетний (boneless, invertebrate), безхарактерний (boneless, characterless, molluscous, weak-minded). (various references) di-asgwrn-cefn. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "spineless": spinelessly, spinelessness, spinelessnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Spineless" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Saineresse, shineles. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "spineless" (pronounced spī"nlus) |
| 4 | -n l u s | boneless, brainless, directionless, expressionless, frictionless, hornless, motionless, painless, skinless, stainless. |
| 3 | -l u s | accomplice, acropolis, ageless, aimless, airless, Amaryllis, anomalous, atlas, bacillus, backless, balas, baseless, blameless, bloodless, bolus, bottomless, boundless, breathless, calculus, callous, callus, careless, Carolus, cashless, ceaseless, childless, classless, cloudless, clueless, Colas, colorless, cordless, countless, cutlass, defenseless, digitalis, doubtless, driverless, ductless, earless, effortless, endless, eyeless, fabulous, faceless, fatherless, fearless, featherless, featureless, feckless, fellas, fenceless, flawless, flightless, frivolous, fruitless, Gallus, garrulous, gladiolus, godless, graceless, groundless, guileless, guiltless, hairless, hapless, harmless, headless, heartless, helpless, homeless, hopeless, 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, nameless, nautilus, nebulous, necklace, necropolis, needless, odorless, overzealous, Oxalis, 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, shapeless, shiftless, sleepless, sleeveless, smokeless, solace, soulless, speechless, spotless, 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, 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-i-l-n-p-s-s-s" | |
-1 letter: pelisses, spinless. | |
-2 letters: enisles, ensiles, lessens, pelisse, penises, pensile, pensils, plisses, seniles, sessile, sinless, speises, spenses, spinels, spleens, splines. | |
-3 letters: enisle, ensile, espies, lenses, lessen, nesses, peises, penile, pensil, pisses, plisse, seines, seises, senile, senses, sepses, sepsis, sleeps, slipes, snipes, speels, speils, speise, speiss, spense, spiels, spiles, spinel, spines, spleen, spline. | |
-4 letters: esses, isles. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-i-l-n-p-s-s-s" | |
+1 letter: limpnesses, simpleness, sleepiness. | |
+2 letters: lumpinesses, pensionless, plainnesses, pulpinesses, shapeliness, specialness, spinelessly. | |
+3 letters: floppinesses, limpidnesses, lopsidedness, painlessness, pallidnesses, paltrinesses, perilousness, personalises, pitilessness, placidnesses, pleasingness, pliantnesses, pluckinesses, plushinesses, politenesses, portlinesses, priestliness, publicnesses, simplenesses, sleepinesses, slipperiness, sloppinesses, spitefulness, splendidness, suspensively. | |
+4 letters: explosiveness, impulsiveness, listenerships, lumpishnesses, painfulnesses, pitifulnesses, plausibleness, pliablenesses, pointlessness, pricklinesses, repulsiveness, shapelinesses, siphonosteles, specialnesses, spiegeleisens, spinelessness, splashinesses, supersensible, typicalnesses. | |
| 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: Photo Album 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
