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Glite Dictionary
leafless

leafless

3 2.9
A tree or plant that has no leaves
  • adjective
  • /ˈliːfləs/
: sin hojas
  • The garden looked desolate with its leafless shrubs and bare branches swaying in the cold wind.
  • leafless tree

Or the way the tree trunks lay in the northern woods, leafless, then save for the ground cover.

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Examples

  • Dusty sunlight sparkled through the nearly leafless trees, cutting across the yard at an angle.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • The moon rose above the hills, the light falling down through the leafless trees and producing the effect Konrad had predicted.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • There were no crosses, only the leafless trees beyond my window.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Or the way the tree trunks lay in the northern woods, leafless, then save for the ground cover.

    Harvard University

  • Irene looked up through the leafless branches of the trees.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Even without their leaves, don't be fooled to believe that there is nothing to get from leafless trees.

    Academic text (2006)

  • A breeze came down the side of the mountain, rattling the leafless branches of the hickories.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • The sky was bleak, and so were my photo prospects as I trudged among the leafless trees and shrubs.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The trees' knobby gray limbs draped their supporting scaffoldings, stark and leafless in winter.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Designer buildings nestled amidst wide swathes of white lawn, frozen water, and leafless groves.

    Fiction book (1999)

Synonyms

defoliated
vsleafless
  • Specialized
1 6.8

A tree that has lost most or all of its leaves

is the neutral state of having no leaves without naming a cause
aphyllous
vsleafless
  • Specialized
9.9

A plant without leaves, often to save water in dry places

applies also to trees as well as plants

Antonyms

leafy
30 1.6

Having many leaves that give shade

How Leafy

leafy
30 1.6
leafed
2 4.0
leafless
3 2.9

Surface Forms

leafless positive

Morphology

leafless = leaf (transparent) = leaf + less

The meaning 'without leaves' is directly derived from 'leaf' and the suffix '-less'.

Etymology

Leafless is made of leaf and -less, where leaf means 'the flat green part of a plant' and -less means 'without'. So leafless literally means 'without leaves', which is why we use it for a tree or plant that has no leaves.