faithless
Americanadjective
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not adhering to allegiance, promises, vows, or duty.
the faithless behavior of Benedict Arnold.
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not trustworthy; unreliable.
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without trust or belief.
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being without religious faith.
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(among Christians) bereft of Christian faith.
adjective
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unreliable or treacherous
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dishonest or disloyal
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having no faith or trust
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lacking faith, esp religious faith
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of faithless
First recorded in 1250–1300, faithless is from the Middle English word faithles. See faith, -less
Explanation
Someone who's faithless can't be trusted to be loyal. The faithless advisor to a king might turn out to be a traitor plotting against him. If you're faithless, you're untrustworthy. You might be a faithless government worker, stealing state secrets to sell to an enemy, or a faithless boyfriend, secretly dating other people behind your girlfriend's back. The earliest meaning of faithless was "lacking religious faith," although it came to mean "deceptive" by the middle of the 14th century. Faith comes from the Latin fides, "trust, faith, or belief."
Vocabulary lists containing faithless
The Picture of Dorian Gray
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This Week In Words: November 14–20, 2020
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myPerspectives 9.6
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Maxi Jazz, the lead singer of the English dance group Faithless, died at 65, The Guardian reports.
From New York Times • Dec. 25, 2022
The team will walk out to Faithless on Boxing Day in tribute.
From BBC • Dec. 24, 2022
Faithless broke up in 2011, but reunited recently, without Jazz, who had since formed Maxi Jazz & The E-Type Boys.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 24, 2022
Crystal Palace's first team will walk out to Faithless as they take on Fulham at Selhurst Park in the Premier League on Boxing Day, the club's chairman wrote on Twitter.
From BBC • Dec. 24, 2022
"That's of no use to me. I can gather my own firewood, and you'd just be another weight for Faithless and Hopeless to pull. I take no passengers."
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
