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Glite Dictionary
💻 No paper used 🛂 Without documents
paperless

paperless

4.2
Without official identity or immigration papers
  • adjective
  • /ˈpeɪpərləs/
translation icon : sin papeles
  • The refugees found themselves paperless, struggling to prove their identities in a foreign land.

So, Emily, just consider yourself paperless, Ish.

Examples

  • The Orange County, Calif., probate court is, "if not paperless, paper on demand," says Alan Slater, the superior court's executive officer.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Being paperless meant that she had no identification documents when she tried to register for the services.

  • In May 1919, six months after the end of the war, Roland Kepper's German mother sent him paperless, stateless back to his grandmother Odile in Alsace.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Without any official documentation, Carlos was considered paperless and faced difficulties at the airport.

Synonyms

undocumented
vspaperless
99 6.2

A person who has no official papers to live or work in a country

is more about missing identification or immigration papers rather than general permissions

Antonyms

registered
  • Formal
1 3.8

Officially listed by an authority as allowed to do a job

documented
3.7

Proved by written or official papers

How Documented

registered
  • Formal
1 3.8
paperless
4.2

Surface Forms

paperless positive

Morphology

paperless = paper (transparent) = paper + less

Standard adjectival formation from 'paper' + '-less' meaning 'without papers/documents', which directly matches the sense.

Etymology

Paperless combines paper and -less, where paper means 'official documents' and -less means 'without'. So a paperless person is someone 'without' the legal papers they need, like an ID or passport.