Standard Lemma guide

shunless

adj · 1 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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈʃʌnləs/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /-lɪs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈʃʌnləs/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

That cannot be shunned; not to be avoided; inevitable, unavoidable.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: literary

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: unignorable, unshunnable

Antonyms: avoidable, ignorable, shunnable

History

Etymology

From shun + -less (suffix meaning ‘lacking, without’), probably popularized by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616) by its use in his play Coriolanus (c. 1608–1609): see the quotation.