different between lone vs helpless

English

Etymology

Shortened from alone.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /l??n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /lo?n/

• Rhymes: -??n

• Homophone: loan

Adjective

lone (not comparable)

1. Solitary; having no companion.
   • 1741, William Shenstone, The Judgment of Hercules

     When I have on those pathless wilds appeared, / And the lone wanderer with my presence cheered.

   • The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.
2. Isolated or lonely; lacking companionship.
3. Sole; being the only one of a type.
4. Situated by itself or by oneself, with no neighbours.
5. (archaic) Unfrequented by human beings; solitary.
   • c. 1715, Alexander Pope, Epistle To Mrs Teresa Blount

     Thus vanish sceptres, coronets, and balls, / And leave you on lone woods, or empty walls.

6. (archaic) Single; unmarried, or in widowhood.
   • Collection of Records (1642)

     Queen Elizabeth being a lone woman.

Synonyms

• only

Derived terms

Related terms

• alone

Translations

Anagrams

• Elon, Leno, Leon, León, NOEL, Noel, Nole, Noël, elon, enol, leno, neol., noel, nole, noël, one L

Afrikaans

Noun

lone

1. plural of loon

Dutch

Verb

lone

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of lonen

Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?lone]

Noun

lone n

1. locative singular of lono

Yola

Noun

lone

1. Alternative form of lhoan

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.