different between defenseless vs helpless

defenseless

English

Alternative forms

  • defenceless

Etymology

defense +? -less

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /d??f?nsl?s/

Adjective

defenseless (comparative more defenseless, superlative most defenseless)

  1. Lacking any form of defense; vulnerable; open to attack.

Translations

defenseless From the web:

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helpless

English

Etymology

From Middle English helples, from Old English *helpl?as (helpless) from Proto-Germanic *help?lausaz, equivalent to help +? -less. Compare Dutch hulpeloos (helpless), German hilflos (helpless), Swedish hjälplös (helpless).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /?h?lpl?s/
  • Hyphenation: help?less

Adjective

helpless (comparative more helpless, superlative most helpless)

  1. Unable to defend oneself.
    • 1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?
      Then when you find yourself lyin' helpless in her arms
      You know you really love a woman
  2. Lacking help; powerless.
  3. Unable to act without help; needing help; feeble.
  4. Uncontrollable.
    a helpless urge
  5. (obsolete) From which there is no possibility of being saved.
    • For, while they fly that gulf's devouring jawes,
      They on the rock are rent and sunck in helplesse wawes.

Derived terms

  • helplessly
  • helplessness

Translations

Further reading

  • helpless in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
  • helpless in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

helpless From the web:

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  • what helpless means in spanish
  • what helplessness leads to
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  • helpless what to do
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