gormless
/ˈɡɔːmləs/adjective
gormless is spelled G-O-R-M-L-E-S-S: 8 letters. It appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 110,368th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, gormless means “Lacking intelligence, sense or understanding; foolish” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in gormless?
| Letters | 8: G-O-R-M-L-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 13 million words; the 110,368th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is gormless?
Gormless appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 110,368th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce gormless?
- UK /ˈɡɔːmləs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-gormless.ogg, En-au-gormless.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of gormless
- more gormless comparative
- most gormless superlative
- gaumless
- gawmless
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gormless mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
CommonwealthIrelandUKLacking intelligence, sense or understanding; foolish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Gormless in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense lacking intelligence or understanding; foolish:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does gormless come from?
From dialectal English gaum (“heed, attention”) + -less (“without”), from Old Norse gaum, from Proto-Germanic *gaumaz, *gaumō (“heed, attention”). The ‘r’ found in this spelling is a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).