as in powerlessness
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of helplessness
Different circumstances, and yet his helplessness, medicine’s helplessness, felt the same.
—
Courtney Crowder, USA Today, 10 Apr. 2026
The contest over causation goes to parents’ simultaneous senses of responsibility and helplessness about their children’s fates.
—Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 9 Apr. 2026
What that’s code for — and what’s piquing Andrew’s caretaker tendencies along with his pheromones — is a certain kind of big-eyed helplessness.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 7 Apr. 2026
Anger and helplessness drive some young people to Nick Fuentes, others to Hasan Piker, and others still to fentanyl or 20-hour days of Fortnite.
—George Packer, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2026
Cinematographer Ben Goodman straddles the line between both with sharp lensing that places particular emphasis on overhead shots, underlining Caplan’s horizontal helplessness.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026
For years, people who lived just outside the urban center of Boca Raton complained to each other about the massive new buildings going up all around Palmetto Park Boulevard and Mizner Park, but these conversations always ended with the same sense of helplessness.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 11 Mar. 2026
There’s a level of helplessness that drags up, being surrounded by AI tools and AI updates and AI jobs, only to be faced with an idiot parent or friend or casual acquaintance using AI to justify their shitty actions towards you.
—Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 11 Mar. 2026
But Tolstoy showed us the panic and disorientation, the helplessness of the individual in battle.
—Literary Hub, 9 Mar. 2026
Courtney Crowder, USA Today, 10 Apr. 2026
The contest over causation goes to parents’ simultaneous senses of responsibility and helplessness about their children’s fates.
—Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 9 Apr. 2026
What that’s code for — and what’s piquing Andrew’s caretaker tendencies along with his pheromones — is a certain kind of big-eyed helplessness.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 7 Apr. 2026
Anger and helplessness drive some young people to Nick Fuentes, others to Hasan Piker, and others still to fentanyl or 20-hour days of Fortnite.
—George Packer, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2026
Cinematographer Ben Goodman straddles the line between both with sharp lensing that places particular emphasis on overhead shots, underlining Caplan’s horizontal helplessness.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026
For years, people who lived just outside the urban center of Boca Raton complained to each other about the massive new buildings going up all around Palmetto Park Boulevard and Mizner Park, but these conversations always ended with the same sense of helplessness.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 11 Mar. 2026
There’s a level of helplessness that drags up, being surrounded by AI tools and AI updates and AI jobs, only to be faced with an idiot parent or friend or casual acquaintance using AI to justify their shitty actions towards you.
—Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 11 Mar. 2026
But Tolstoy showed us the panic and disorientation, the helplessness of the individual in battle.
—Literary Hub, 9 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for helplessness
Noun
-
The characters in this novel are forced to live in a neoliberal world where their powerlessness is already predetermined, and they’re ignored by society and told to just keep on living.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
23 Mar. 2026
-
Perhaps the deepest conflict is not between red and blue, but between power and powerlessness.—
George Packer,
The Atlantic,
16 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
But there is a more general dread about human vulnerability to technology—a growing existential fear that people are losing the authorship and agency of their own lives to, particularly, artificial intelligence—that will be reflected in an avalanche of related negligent-design legal claims.—
Jeannie Suk Gersen,
New Yorker,
9 Apr. 2026
-
In part, that’s because both actors are delivering impeccable work, balancing their caustic comic chemistry with course, unbridled vulnerability.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Investigators also found that the bridge's susceptibility to collapse if it was hit was well above federal thresholds.—
Jeanine Santucci,
USA Today,
10 Apr. 2026
-
Trump opposes the use of universal mail-in balloting because of its susceptibility to fraud, including ballot harvesting and non-citizens voting.—
Joe Battenfeld,
Boston Herald,
26 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Helplessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/helplessness. Accessed 16 Apr. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
