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lovelessness

lovelessness

7.0
A life with no love or affection
  • noun
  • /ˈlʌv.ləs.nəs/
translation icon : desamor
  • As Catherine becomes more cruelly convinced that lovelessness is her destiny, Kaufman and Chastain hollow her out to the point where even her suppressed rage doesn't register.

Examples

  • His experience of lovelessness made it difficult for him to form close relationships.

  • It seemed that Tony had somehow been bathed in lovelessness, and that his aloofness, his untouchability, was the result.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • There in Mudear's garden, next to the marigolds and tomato plants, they talked about her lovelessness, her heartlessness, her lack of motherliness.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • They view the conduct of the bishop and his priests as "debasing for God and His people" and accuse their opponents of "lovelessness" and "the desire for usurpation." The secular authorities are just as involved.

    Academic text (1990)
  • The source of K.'s guilt has been discovered elsewhere in a sterile lovelessness, or in a certain automatization of his life, or in Kafka's own breaking of his engagement with Felice Bauer.

    Academic text (1998)
  • The community struggled with lovelessness, leading to isolation and unhappiness among its members.

  • After years of lovelessness, she finally found a partner who showed her true affection.

Synonyms

objectlessness
vslovelessness
  • Specialized
9.9

A state of having no close emotional ties to other people

is a general state of having no love or affectionate feelings

Antonyms

317 1.4

A gentle warm feeling for a person, animal, or thing

1 3.6

Warm care and kindness that a person shows to others

How Loving

devotion
62 3.2
love
1.0
affection
317 1.4
lovelessness
7.0
coldness
7 3.2
indifference
71 4.6

Surface Forms

lovelessness singular

Morphology

lovelessness = loveless (transparent) = love + less + ness

Meaning is a straightforward nominalization of the adjective 'loveless' (love + -less) using the productive suffix '-ness'.

Etymology

Lovelessness is made from love plus -less meaning 'without' and -ness meaning 'a state'. So it simply means the state of being without love, like careless ('without care') or hopeless ('without hope'), which helps you remember the feeling the word describes.