parentless
Britishadjective
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.
Not that the children who passed through the Innocenti’s chambers were necessarily parentless: The vast majority were illegitimate, the result of reckless or criminal liaisons their natural parents found it necessary to cover up.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 23, 2025
Seed only began exploring the true breadth and emotion of her mother’s legacy when she herself reached the age that her mom died, a milestone fraught for many grown, parentless children.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 13, 2025
An early image of masked, parentless children in a hospital waiting area socked me straight in the gut.
From New York Times • Dec. 15, 2021
Given that the U.S. is 14 percent Black, this meant that Black children were more likely than average to be left parentless by COVID-19.
From Salon • Oct. 21, 2021
I thought of my sisters and I standing there, parentless, yet in constant celebration of our parents’ lives.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
