without
with·out/wɪθˈaʊt/adverb, preposition, noun
without is spelled W-I-T-H-O-U-T, 2 syllables: with·out. The wrong spelling people search most is whithout: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 111 of all searches for the word. Without is an adverb meaning “Lacking something; failing”.
How many letters and syllables are in without?
| Letters | 7: W-I-T-H-O-U-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: with·out |
| In writing | 490 times per million words; the 194th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 5; the most searched, whithout, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell without?
Without is spelled W-I-T-H-O-U-T. 5 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 23 of the searches for without in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is without?
Without appears 490 times per million words in written English, the 194th 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 without?
- UK /wɪðˈaʊt/
- UK /wɪθˈaʊt/
- US /wɪθˈaʊt/
Without has 2 syllables, split with·out in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-without.ogg, En-ca-without.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with without?
10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as without from its last stressed vowel (/aʊt/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: outwith.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of without
- withouts plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does without mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
archaicOutside, externally.
Brainiac: This earthquake is quite literally worldwide. Alex Danvers: But the seismic activity [isn't] coming from within the planet, it's coming from without.
- 2
Lacking something; failing.
Being from a large, poor family, he learned to live without.
- 3
Without a condom being worn.
preposition
- 1
archaicOutside of, beyond.
- 2
Not having, containing, characteristic of, etc.
It was a mistake to leave my house without a coat.
- 3
Not doing or not having done something.
He likes to eat everything without sharing.
noun
- 1
Someone or something lacking in something.
conjunction
- 1
archaicUnless, except (introducing a clause).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate without?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of without: w/o, w/out.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Without in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense not having:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sans, pas de, avec pas de, hormis, à l'exclusion de |
| German | ohne |
| Portuguese | sem |
| Spanish | sin, sen, sin- |
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 without come from?
From Middle English withoute, withouten, from Old English wiþūtan (literally “against the outside of”). By surface analysis, with- + out. Compare Dutch buiten (“outside of, without”), Danish uden (“without”), Swedish utan (“without”), Norwegian uten (“without”). Superseded non-native Middle English sauns, sans (“without”), from Old French sans, sanz, senz (“without”). Compare typologically Proto-Slavic *bez (“without”) (<+ Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs (“out”)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).