adjective
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unable to manage independently
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made powerless or weak
they were helpless from so much giggling
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without help
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of helpless
Explanation
To be helpless is to have no ability to take care of or protect yourself from harm. A newborn baby is helpless, and needs parents to care for her. If you're helpless, you're dependent on other people to assist or care for you. Breaking both your legs will leave you helpless, and even being in an unfamiliar city can make you feel helpless as you wander around looking for your hotel late at night. You can also use helpless to mean "irresistible" or "uncontrollable," especially when someone bursts out laughing: "They broke into helpless laughter during his speech."
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.
Living in cramped, windowless containers and only able to leave for serious medical emergencies, she said inhabitants "felt helpless" during the Iranian attacks.
From Barron's • Apr. 27, 2026
One of the dark ideas of the novel is that the aristocracy’s moral and spiritual bankruptcy left them helpless in the face of Europe’s rising totalitarian ideologies.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
“If you’re feeling helpless, if you’re feeling hopeless, if you’re feeling betrayed, if you’re feeling frustrated, if you’re feeling angry — I mean, I know I’ve been,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026
Iran mocked his ultimatum, dismissing it as "helpless, nervous and stupid".
From BBC • Apr. 5, 2026
Half the cars on a freight train had been knocked off the tracks and lay with their bellies in the air, like helpless turtles.
From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret
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.
