childless

adjective

child·​less ˈchī(-ə)l(d)-ləs 

: without children : not having a child or children

a childless couple

Some of the most active and happiest retirees I know are childless.

—David Rae

That's an outgrowth of the current program, which allowed states to expand to pregnant women, parents and childless adults with the administration's approval.

—Miami Times

Advisors usually distinguish between "childless" (no children today but perhaps tomorrow) and "childfree" (no children today or tomorrow).

—John Kador

When you're childless not by choice, Mother's Day can be a painful reminder of profound loss.

—Sian Prior

compare child-free

childlessness noun

Although society instructs us otherwise, parenthood or childlessness need not be the keystone of a woman's identity …

—Christine Pelton Hawkins

But neither is childlessness her clear preference: Things have simply worked out that way so far, and as she heads into her forties, she finds herself ruminating on the possibilities of it working out a little differently.

—Guy Lodge

Many of her fans recognized the mean-spirited nature of the tabloid response to her childlessness, and reached out on social media to support her.

—Jennifer Graham Kizer

Examples of childless in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

How many kids — and a lot of their parents or childless Disney adults — wouldn’t like the sound of that? —Brian Welk, IndieWire, 13 Nov. 2025

In actuality, though, Datini was not childless, merely heirless. —Jessica Winter, New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2025

As a childless person who doesn’t teach I’ve been happily unaware that, due to standardized testing requirements that favor close reads of excerpts over whole books, there’s an entire generation of students who have very little contextual framework for the literature they’re being taught in school. —Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2025

When the company abandons its traditional Nutcracker for a childless, avant-garde version — thus denying Harris’s daughter the starring role she’s dreamed of — Harris leaps into action. —Rosy Cordero, Deadline, 23 Oct. 2025

These Americans live nearly everywhere in the country, but their numbers are especially concentrated in a handful of red states whose governments have declined to expand Medicaid programs to cover poor, childless adults. —Elena Shao, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2025

Continue reading … BABY BATTLE – 'Friends' star reveals painful truth behind childless rumors after decades of silence. —FOXNews.com, 10 Oct. 2025

At the same time, proportions of childless women in lower age groups have increased, according to the bureau. —Jordan King, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Sep. 2025

In 1601, James VI of Scotland traveled to England to claim the throne as James I of England, following the childless Elizabeth I’s death. —Emily Zarevich, JSTOR Daily, 3 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

12th century, in the meaning defined above