Standard Lemma guide

childless

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: CH AY1 L D L AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Not having any children.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

without offspring

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • in some societies a childless woman is rejected by her tribesmen

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English childles; equivalent to child + -less.

Across languages

Translations

60 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: أَبْتَر (ʔabtar) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Azerbaijani: sonsuz — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Azerbaijani: övladsız — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Azerbaijani: oğul-uşaqsız — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Belarusian: бяздзе́тны (bjazdzjétny) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Bulgarian: безде́тен (bezdéten) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Catalan: sense fills — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Chinese Mandarin: 沒有兒女的 /没有儿女的 (méiyǒu érnǚ de) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Chinese Mandarin: 無子女的 /无子女的 (wúzǐnǚ de) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Chinese Mandarin: 無兒無女的 /无儿无女的 (wú'érwúnǚ de) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Czech: bezdětný — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Danish: barnløs — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Dutch: kinderloos — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Esperanto: seninfana — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Finnish: lapseton — not having any children — see also child-free
  • French: sans enfants — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Galician: sen fillos — not having any children — see also child-free
  • German: kinderlos — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Gothic: 𐌿𐌽𐌱𐌰𐍂𐌽𐌰𐌷𐍃 (unbarnahs) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Ancient Greek: ἄτεκνος (áteknos) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Ancient Greek: ἄπαις (ápais) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Hindi: संतानहीन (santānhīn) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Hungarian: gyermektelen — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Icelandic: barnlaus — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Interlingua: sin infantes — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Irish: gan chlann — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Irish: gan chúram — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Irish: gan leanbh — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Japanese: 子無し (konashi) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Korean: 자녀가 없다 (janyeo-ga eopda) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Korean: 자녀가 없는 (janyeo-ga eomneun) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Korean: 아이가 없다 (ai-ga eopda) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Korean: 아이가 없는 (ai-ga eomneun) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Northern Kurdish: bêzarok — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Lithuanian: bevaikis — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Macedonian: бездетен (bezdeten) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Māori: huatea — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Māori: huamutu — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Eastern Mari: йочадыме (jočadyme) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Middle English: childles — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Middle English: barnles — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Norwegian Bokmål: barnløs — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Norwegian Bokmål: barnlaus — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: barnlaus — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Old English: bearnlēas — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Polish: bezdzietny — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Polish: bezpotomny — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Portuguese: sem filhos — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Russian: безде́тный (bezdétnyj) — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Serbo-Croatian: бѐздетан — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Serbo-Croatian: бѐздјетан — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Serbo-Croatian: bèzdetan — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Serbo-Croatian: bèzdjetan — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Slovak: bezdetný — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Slovene: brez otrok — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Spanish: sin hijos — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Swahili: gumba — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Swedish: barnlös — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Turkish: çocuksuz — not having any children — see also child-free
  • Ukrainian: безді́тний (bezdítnyj) — not having any children — see also child-free