headless

American

[hed-lis] / ˈhɛd lɪs /

adjective

without a head.
having the head cut off; beheaded.
having no leader or chief; leaderless.
foolish; stupid.

a headless argument.

headless British

/ ˈhɛdlɪs /

adjective

without a head
without a leader
foolish or stupid
prosody another word for catalectic

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

headlessness noun

Etymology

Origin of headless

before 1000; Middle English he ( ve ) dles, Old English hēafodlēas. See head, -less

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.

It contained several digital distortions, including a headless agent.

From Barron's • Jan. 30, 2026

“I’ve been doing this home so long, maybe I’m losing track,” he says, casting a critical eye at the headless horseman rearing above him.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 21, 2025

As Ambrose Pierce wrote, “Patriotism is as fierce as a fever, pitiless and the grave, blind as a stone and irrational as a headless man.”

From Salon • May 17, 2025

Most incongruously of all, outside a makeshift plastic doorway on a corner of the ground floor, next to piles of rubble and rubbish, stands a headless mannequin, wearing a wedding gown.

From BBC • Mar. 4, 2025

Pull as he might, it remained a luminous rising in the twilit air, like a stairway to nowhere, or the headless incarnation of a jack-in- the-box.

From "Typical American" by Gish Jen

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023