motherless
Britishadjective
adverb
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.
The death of his wife, Martha, in 1782, when she was only 33, so devastated him that for weeks the sight of their children, now motherless, made him swoon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Delila Combs, 18, pleaded: "We can't watch our baby sister grow up fatherless the same way we grew up motherless... Please, please give our family the chance to heal."
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2025
Her thoughtful look at how her identity as a refugee intertwines with that of a motherless daughter speaks to feelings both specific to the displaced and familiar to anyone afflicted with loneliness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2023
Edelman has led motherless daughters’ groups, and her books have helped usher in a new way to live with loss.
From Seattle Times ● May 10, 2023
She laughed as she told him about the motherless baby who still clung to life, about the young girl that Inatimi was falling in love with, about the women who sang in the evenings.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
