W. H. Whyte
Did you know?
Hapless means exactly what you'd expect it to mean: "without hap"—hap being another word for fortune or luck. Hap comes from the Old Norse word for "good luck," which is also the source of happen and happy. English has several words to describe those lacking good fortune, including ill-starred, ill-fated, unlucky, and luckless, a word formed in parallel to hapless by adding the suffix -less. Ill-starred suggests bringing calamity or the threat of a terrible fate ("the ill-starred year the Great Depression began"). Ill-fated refers only to being doomed ("the ill-fated voyage of the Titanic"). Unlucky and luckless usually apply to a person or thing notably or chronically unfortunate ("an unlucky slots player," "some luckless investors swindled in the deal"). Hapless is often imbued with a touch of pity, humor, or both for those to whom it refers, as in "a hapless goalie who couldn't block a shot to save his life."
Examples of hapless in a Sentence
Levi Weaver, New York Times, 8 June 2026
Bargatze likes to be the butt of the joke, casting himself as the hapless but well-meaning dad who can barely keep track of his day-to-day needs.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 5 June 2026
Cherry plays Gary, a hapless, low-key type of guy who goes on a blind date, to avenge infidelity in his jaded long-term relationship, with the much younger, devil-may-care Ell, played by Borat breakout Maria Bakalova.
—Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 4 June 2026
But Faris and Hall, whose hapless BFFs Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks had by then become its A-list faces, continued with Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4 alone.
—Entertainment Weekly, 2 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for hapless
Cite this Entry
“Hapless.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hapless. Accessed 11 Jun. 2026.
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hapless
adjective
