Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not expressed in words; unspoken.
- adjective Inarticulate; silent.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Silent; speechless.
- Unexpressed in words.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Not using words; not speaking; silent; speechless.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Conveyed without the use ofwords ;unspoken orunsaid . - adjective
Unable orunwilling tospeak ;dumb ,silent orinarticulate .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective expressed without speech
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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She had spent the long night by the kitchen fire listening to the raging of the storm, Martha close beside her in wordless sympathy, and when Dr. Clay came in with the good news that the operation was over, and the great man believed that Libby Anne would live, she was almost hysterical with joy.
The Second Chance 1910
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Mrs. Cavers leaned forward, straining her eyes after the cloud of dust that marked the pacing horse's progress, clasping and unclasping her hands in wordless misery.
The Second Chance 1910
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One minute the ball went close to Millford's goal and Mrs. Watson and Mrs. Perkins clutched each other's hands in wordless dread; but the wiry form of Teddy Watson shot up in the air and the ball bounced back into the Millford captain's stick.
The Second Chance 1910
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She sat upon the ground absorbed in wordless despair, when through the gusty wind and bickering rain she thought she heard her name called.
II.8 1826
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It's entirely wordless, which is actually a pretty clever choice on Robinson's part, as it allows for a number of surprising fake-out moments that might not have been so surprising if Robinson had allowed his characters the opportunity to speak through their situations.
The Hurting 2009
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She uses very few words (though Robot Dreams isn't truly a "wordless" book, as I discussed back here).
Archive 2008-11-01 2008
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The label "wordless" seems to mean something different when applied to children's picture books.
Archive 2008-02-01 2008
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Chicken and Cat got labeled as "wordless" because it doesn't have words where most picture books do.
Archive 2008-02-01 2008
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It was just the kind of wordless symbolism in which McQueen used to specialise.
Alexander McQueen: family and fashion royalty pay tributes at St Paul's fashion editor 2010
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She uses very few words (though Robot Dreams isn't truly a "wordless" book, as I discussed back here).
Robot Nightmares 2008
EmmaSmith commented on the word wordless
I didn't think that this was a word, but I was wrong.
January 27, 2011