homeless
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
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.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of homeless
First recorded before 1000; home ( def. ) + -less ( def. )
Explanation
If you're homeless, you don't have any place to live — you might be without a roof over your head, or even without a country to call your own. Refugees living in temporary camps because of civil war are homeless. Homeless refugees aren't really citizens of any land, while other homeless people are in a more temporary bad spot, having lost their homes because of financial trouble, illness, or other bad luck. Sometimes the word homeless is used as a noun for a person in such a predicament, but it's more correct and thoughtful to use the word as an adjective — that way, a homeless person isn't solely defined by not having a home.
Vocabulary lists containing homeless
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.
In 2014, he won a Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting for an investigation into abusive landlords and squalid conditions in publicly subsidized housing for Tampa’s homeless.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
At one point, the mayor even compared street taco vendors to homeless encampments, with both supposedly disrupting the fabric of a well-run city.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Rough sleepers -- those sleeping outdoors -- are a minority of England's total homeless, estimated at 382,000 in 2025 by leading charity Shelter.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
However, once they are granted refugee status, support from the UK government stops and many turn to the council for assistance, ending up in temporary or homeless accommodation.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Villagers were left homeless, without the animals they depended on for farming, income, and food.
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
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.
