penniless
/ˈpɛ.nɪ.ləs/adjective
penniless is spelled P-E-N-N-I-L-E-S-S: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,912th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, penniless means “Lacking even the smallest amount of money” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in penniless?
| Letters | 9: P-E-N-N-I-L-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 34,912th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is penniless?
Penniless appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,912th 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 penniless?
- /ˈpɛ.nɪ.ləs/
Penniless has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-penniless.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Sapaa-penniless.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of penniless
- pennyless
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does penniless mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Lacking even the smallest amount of money.
In societies without national insurance of any kind, almshouses are the last refuge of penniless people.
- 2
Of a country's system of money, abstaining from the use of penny coins, despite having fully decimalized currency, by means of rounding of cash transactions (but not necessarily of cashless ones).
Canada became a penniless country in 2013 simply by rounding its cash transactions to the nearest nickel but otherwise not changing anything.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Penniless in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense utterly without money:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sans le sou |
| German | mittellos, ohne Geld, ohne einen Pfennig |
| Portuguese | paupérrimo |
| Spanish | miserable |
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 penniless come from?
From Middle English penyles, penylees; equivalent to penny + -less. Compare Old Norse penningalauss (“penniless”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).