Synonyms of helplessness

helplessness

noun

as in powerlessness

Related Words

• powerlessness
• vulnerability
• susceptibility
• passivity
• defenselessness
• weakness
• feebleness
• sensitivity
• passiveness
• infirmity
• frailty
• predisposition
• proneness
• openness
• naïveté
• receptivity
• exposure
• receptiveness
• gullibility
• frailness
• easiness
• liability
• credulity
• credulousness

Dissimilar Words

• invulnerability
• immunity
• invincibility
• impenetrability
• indomitability
• indomitableness

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of helplessness

As Josephine’s mother, Claire, Chan is luminous with quiet sorrow, conveying maternal guilt and helplessness with precision. — Clayton Davis, Variety, 9 Sep. 2026

To watch Shaw in full flight must fill defences with a sense of pure helplessness. — Katie Whyatt, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2026

Picture the anger and helplessness of watching that person bleed out through a video on your phone. — Stephania Taladrid, New Yorker, 13 Aug. 2026

At this moment, complete inertia, helplessness, or escape seemed to be the only ways to react, but Zionism offered a strategy for coping with the changing circumstances, a strategy that had begun with Theodor Herzl. — Literary Hub, 12 Aug. 2026

Indignation emerged as the dominant emotion, cited by 80% of respondents, followed by helplessness (74%) and sadness (71%). — Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 5 Aug. 2026

Europeans also exposed themselves to a concerted and resourceful Americanization, which partly accounts for their intellectual helplessness today. — Cynthia Zarin, Harpers Magazine, 28 July 2026

Welcome to the strange phenomenon of people expressing anger or helplessness to online content creators or writers who don’t acknowledge their specific lifestyles or limitations. — Kristen Rogers, CNN Money, 16 July 2026

And to relegate yourself to that inert position so much does, at some level, inspire a certain helplessness in you. — Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 26 June 2026