speechless
Americanadjective
-
temporarily deprived of speech by strong emotion, physical weakness, exhaustion, etc..
speechless with alarm.
- Synonyms:
- mute
- Antonyms:
- talkative, voluble, loquacious
-
characterized by absence or loss of speech.
speechless joy.
- Antonyms:
- talkative, voluble, loquacious
-
lacking the faculty of speech; dumb.
- Antonyms:
- talkative, voluble, loquacious
-
not expressed in speech or words.
speechless compliments.
-
refraining from speech.
adjective
-
not able to speak
-
temporarily deprived of speech
-
not expressed or able to be expressed in words
speechless fear
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of speechless
before 1000; Middle English specheles, Old English spǣclēas. See speech, -less
Explanation
If you’re speechless, you can’t talk, usually because something surprising and crazy happened. You might be rendered speechless if you win the lottery or find a whale on your front lawn. When you’re speechless, you’re at a loss for words. For example, people often say things like "I was speechless when I received the news about my brother!" or "The music left me speechless!" It’s an exaggeration. People use speechless in these cases to show how stunned or moved they were, even though they were probably still capable of speech. "I'm speechless" often really means "I'm shocked!"
Vocabulary lists containing speechless
Power Suffix: -less
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Shhhh! Synonyms for "Quiet"
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"Say It with Flowers" and "The Journey"
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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.
According to Byfield, the decision devastated his mother so deeply that she fell into a speechless fit and died only days later.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was near speechless: “I, as speaker, never—we didn’t even consider that anybody would do that,” she told Politico.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
“I was speechless at first,” safety Quentin Lake said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
When 17-year-old student Max Avena visited the site of New York's fallen Twin Towers, hearing the first-hand accounts of survivors of the deadliest attacks on US soil left him "speechless."
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
Penn then remarked that Engel’s English must have been picked up in the American Midwest, which left the rest of us speechless for a longish moment.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
