clueless

adjective

clue·​less ˈklü-ləs 

1

: having or providing no clue

a clueless case for the police to solve

2

: completely or hopelessly bewildered, unaware, ignorant, or foolish

clueless about what they want

cluelessly adverb

I played dumb. I have arrived at a point in my life where I can perform this stunt with aplomb. "What do you mean?" I asked, as cluelessly as I knew how.

—Steve Friedman

cluelessness noun

Mowrey is also trying to make a deer hunter of Bentley, whose cluelessness as an outdoors-man is a rich source of amusement to his country-boy crony.

—Austin Murphy

Synonyms of clueless

• ignorant
• unaware
• oblivious

Examples of clueless in a Sentence

When it comes to computers, I'm clueless.

They were clueless about what to do.

Recent Examples on the Web

There’s an absent father and a clueless, neglectful mother but the five Gilbert children — Lydia, Hugo, Annabel, Jeremy and Rosalind — are essentially raising themselves in an English country house of secret passages and worrying infestations. —Tribune News Service, Baltimore Sun, 23 Jan. 2026

An old 4chan meme designed as a cruel caricature has somehow become the face of clueless commentators asking for context. —Dani Di Placido, Forbes.com, 23 Jan. 2026

There’s an absent father and a clueless, neglectful mother but the five Gilbert children — Lydia, Hugo, Annabel, Jeremy and Rosalind — are essentially raising themselves in an English country house of secret passages and worrying infestations. —Chris Hewitt, Boston Herald, 22 Jan. 2026

The 100-minute comedy can best be described as a lampooning of virtue signaling, and of the clueless white liberal establishment that learned the words and signals of equity without really changing their behavior. —Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 22 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1743, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for clueless

• shoeless
• viewless

Kids Definition

clueless

adjective

clue·​less ˈklü-ləs 

: having or providing no clue