Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Needlessly |
NeedlesslyAdverb1. Without need; "it would needlessly bring badness into the world". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "needlessly" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
Crosswords: Needlessly |
| English words defined with "needlessly": alarmist ♦ Battologize, bureaucratic procedure ♦ Gadding ♦ law of parsimony ♦ Occam's Razor, Ockham's Razor ♦ principle of parsimony ♦ red tape, redundancy ♦ To borrow trouble. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "needlessly": Gas ♦ Lion's Mouth ♦ Pell-mell ♦ virtual circuit. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Brutal and needlessly sadistic. (Tron; writing credit: Steven Lisberger.) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Moreover, the costs of these tests may make blood processing and blood transfusions needlessly more expensive. (references) | |
Requiring one or more normal pneumograms before discontinuing the monitor may prolong needlessly the monitoring period. (references) | ||
Human Rights | Korea | Inmates occasionally criticized guards for using excessive force or needlessly putting prisoners in manacles. (references) |
Guatemala | Some justice workers interpreted the judge's request to be recused after having already been involved in the case for some months as unprofessional and needlessly casting doubt on the pretrial decisions in which he had taken part. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Ronald Reagan | 1981-1989 | We will continue to cooperate with the Federal Reserve Board, seeking a steady policy that ensures price stability without keeping interest rates artificially high or needlessly holding down growth. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Needlessly" is generally used as an adverb (general) -- approximately 98.90% of the time. "Needlessly" is used about 91 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 |
| Adverb (general) | 98.9% | 90 | 34,744 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.1% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 91 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "needlessly"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Chinese | 多余地 (unnecessarily). (various references) | |
German | unno.tigerweise, unnötigerweise (unnecessarily), überflüssigerweise (superfluously). (various references) | |
Hungarian | szükségtelenül (redundantly), fölöslegesen (unavailingly). (various references) | |
Korean | 필" 없. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eedlesslynay.(various references) | |
Russian | бесполезно (it is no good, it is no use, it is useless, uselessly, without avail). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | nepotrebno (need: no need, unnecessarily), uzaludno (vainly). (various references) | |
Spanish | innecesariamente, inútilmente (bootlessly, idly, pointlessly, uselessly, vainly), en vano (for nothing, in vain, without avail). (various references) | |
Swedish | onödigt (needless, unnecessarily). (various references) | |
Thai | อย่างไม่จำเป็น. (various references) | |
Turkish | gereksizce (superfluously, unnecessarily). (various references) | |
Ukranian | некорисно, непотрібно, марно (fondly, idly, in vain, of no effect), зайве. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "needlessly" (pronounced nē"dluslē) |
| 6 | -d l u s l ē | endlessly, mindlessly. |
| 5 | -l u s l ē | aimlessly, breathlessly, callously, carelessly, ceaselessly, effortlessly, fabulously, flawlessly, frivolously, fruitlessly, harmlessly, helplessly, hopelessly, jealously, listlessly, marvelously, mercilessly, meticulously, miraculously, painlessly, perilously, recklessly, relentlessly, restlessly, ridiculously, ruthlessly, scrupulously, seamlessly, shamelessly, tirelessly, tremulously, zealously. |
| 4 | -u s l ē | ambitiously, anonymously, anxiously, assiduously, autonomously, capriciously, cautiously, conscientiously, consciously, conspicuously, contemporaneously, contemptuously, continuously, courageously, curiously, dangerously, deliciously, disastrously, egregiously, enormously, enviously, erroneously, expeditiously, facetiously, fallaciously, famously, ferociously, furiously, generously, gloriously, graciously, gratuitously, grievously, harmoniously, hellaciously, hideously, hilariously, horrendously, humorously, incongruously, indigenously, ingeniously, instantaneously, intravenously, judiciously, laboriously, ludicrously, maliciously, mysteriously, nervously, notoriously, obviously, ominously, ostentatiously, outrageously, piously, posthumously, precariously, precipitously, previously, prodigiously, purposely, religiously, righteously, rigorously, seriously, simultaneously, spontaneously, strenuously, studiously, subconsciously, surreptitiously, suspiciously, synonymously, tediously, tenaciously, tremendously, unambiguously, unanimously, unceremoniously, unconsciously, variously, vicariously, viciously, vigorously, vociferously. |
| 3 | -s l ē | adversely, closely, concisely, conversely, densely, expressly, falsely, fiercely, grossly, immensely, intensely, inversely, loosely, nicely, parsley, perversely, precisely, princely, profusely, scarcely, sparsely, tensely, tersely, thusly. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-e-e-l-l-n-s-s-y" | |
-1 letter: endlessly. | |
-2 letters: eyedness, lessened, needless. | |
-3 letters: densely, endless, eyeless, needles, snelled. | |
-4 letters: dynels, lensed, lenses, lessee, lessen, needle, seeled, selles, selsyn, sensed, snells, yelled, yessed. | |
-5 letters: deles, dells, delly, denes, dense, dynel, dynes, lends, lenes, lense, lysed, lyses, needs, needy, nelly, seeds, seedy, seels, seely, selle, sells, sends, sense, sleds, sneds, snell, snyes, yells, yeses. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-e-e-l-l-n-s-s-y" | |
+3 letters: defenselessly. | |
| 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. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4E 65 65 64 6C 65 73 73 6C 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-. . . -.. .-.. . ... ... .-.. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001110 01100101 01100101 01100100 01101100 01100101 01110011 01110011 01101100 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)N e e d l e s s l y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004E 0065 0065 0064 006C 0065 0073 0073 006C 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)48717170787185857891 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Quotations: Non-fiction | 5. Quotations: Speeches 6. Usage Frequency 7. Translations: Modern 8. Rhymes | 9. Anagrams 10. Orthography 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
