friendless

friendless — adjective

1. describes someone who has no friends to spend time with, talk to, or receive sup

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

describes someone who has no friends to spend time with, talk to, or receive support from.

Example

Aiko felt friendless at her new school, with no one to share lunch with.

feel + friendless + after life change

After his wife died, Tomás spent his final years friendless in a small flat.

Common collocations
  • feel friendless
  • leave someone friendless
  • completely friendless
  • utterly friendless
  • a friendless existence
Synonyms
  • lonely

    emphasises the sad feeling of being alone, not necessarily the objective lack of friends

  • isolated

    stresses physical or social separation from others, often by location or circumstances

  • alone

    simply means by oneself; does not carry the same negative emotional weight as friendless

  • abandoned

    implies that someone who was supposed to be there has left, adding a sense of betrayal

Antonyms
  • popular

    having many friends and being well-liked in a group

  • surrounded

    having people around you, though not necessarily close friends

Grammar Patterns

be + friendless

feel + friendless

leave + object + friendless

Usage Note

In everyday conversation, English speakers more often say "does not have any friends" or "has no friends" rather than using "friendless," which sounds more formal or literary.

Common Mistakes

I felt friendless when my friends were busy.
I felt lonely when my friends were busy.
Being friendless means having zero friends, not that your friends are temporarily unavailable.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Friendless describes the objective state of having no friends at all, whereas lonely focuses on the emotional sadness of being alone — a person can feel lonely even in a crowd. Isolated suggests physical or social separation from others, often because of location or circumstances beyond one's control. Abandoned adds a sense of betrayal: someone who should have stayed has walked away. Forlorn combines visible sadness with hopelessness, and is often used in literature to describe a person who looks lost, alone, and desperate. A child who sits alone at lunch every day is friendless, while a patient whose family never visits may feel isolated. A person abandoned by a partner at a hospital feels forlorn.

lonely ↗isolated ↗friendless ↗abandonedforlorn

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • leave someone friendless
  • feel friendless

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Friendless comes from Old English 'frēondlēas', combining 'frēond' (friend, literally 'loving one') with the suffix '-lēas' (meaning 'without' or 'devoid of'). The '-less' suffix has remained productive in English for over a thousand years, continuing to form adjectives that mean 'without the quality named by the base word.'