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View synonyms for homeless

homeless

[ hohm-lis ]

adjective

  1. without a home or without permanent housing:

    a homeless refugee.



noun

, (used with a plural verb)
  1. Usually the homeless. Sometimes Disparaging and Offensive. people who lack permanent housing or a fixed residence, collectively.

homeless

/ ˈhəʊmlɪs /

adjective

    1. having nowhere to live
    2. ( as collective noun; preceded by the )

      the homeless

“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


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Sensitive Note

There are a number of words used to label people who don’t have permanent housing. While the term homeless was used without controversy for some time, advocates for this population, many style guides, and some people who identify as members of this group now prefer other terms including unhoused, houseless, and unsheltered. The alternative terms to homeless each have a specific nuance of meaning. Unsheltered, for example, includes people who sleep in cars and under overpasses, but not people in temporary housing like city shelters. Houseless and unhoused both mean that a person lacks permanent housing, but may still be a member of a community that they call home, in which case the designation homeless is imprecise. Further, someone’s homeless status is often temporary, as expressed in the phrases “people moving through houselessness,” “people experiencing homelessness,” and “unsheltered people.” Nevertheless, the term homeless is easily understood and even preferred as a term of self-identification by many members of this community. The designation homeless is still widely used and only sometimes offensive or disparaging. However, one should be mindful of the negative connotation this word may have and the many unfortunate associations it has had with poverty, mental illness, substance abuse, or crime. The word should not be used as a euphemism for these other statuses and stigmatized conditions. Homeless should be used only in the strict denotative meaning, and alternative expressions that put the person first, like “an individual experiencing homelessness,” are often preferable.
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Derived Forms

  • ˈhomelessness, noun
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Other Words From

  • home·less·ly adverb
  • home·less·ness noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of homeless1

First recorded before 1000; home ( def ) + -less ( def )
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Example Sentences

That’s why activist Terence Lester is making sure the country’s homeless community has access to portable sinks.

State officials on Thursday revealed they have received three San Diego County applications from unspecified municipalities that hope to use state Project Homekey funds to buy hotels to house homeless people.

Officials also announced that there will be a plan to bring some of the most vulnerable students – including those who are homeless – back to physical campus within the next several weeks.

The San Diego Housing Commission is officially pursuing state grant funds to try to buy hotels to house hundreds of homeless San Diegans.

For months, Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the Housing Commission have said they want to buy up hotels to help supply permanent homes for hundreds of homeless people now staying at the Convention Center shelter.

Her house in Donetsk, she says, has been taken over by rebels and her family is now all but homeless.

Mark Reay is a handsome model-turned-photographer who is homeless, living in a secret ‘nest’ on top of an apartment building.

Some of these young men are sex workers, homeless, and drug users.

Earlier this month the Vatican announced the installation of free showers for the homeless in public bathrooms in the city-state.

Rome charities estimate that there are around 8,000 homeless people in Rome.

There is, perhaps, in this childish suffering often something more than the sense of being homeless and outcast.

Pride forbade him to confess himself a homeless, penniless vagabond.

The wise man depends on us for his roof and lodging; and without us he would be homeless.

Then she was a little, homeless, orphan girl who was "taken in out of charity" by Uncle Jabez.

But you must not think that she is a homeless child with a torn dress; she looks quite different.

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homelands movementhomelessness