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.

ˈheadless 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

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

For the first year and a half of the business, I was running around like a headless chicken.

From BBC • Dec. 28, 2024

Who knows what prompted Camille Claudel, at 20, to take a blade to the clay model of her sculpture of a headless crouching nude, tilting to one side and balanced precariously on rough feet?

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 9, 2024

The dark patches grew darker, but they shrank; and suddenly he saw, towering ominous before him and leaning slightly towards one another like the pillars of a headless door, two huge standing stones.

From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien

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