Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being without children.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state of being childless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of being childless.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the condition of being without offspring

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

childless +‎ -ness

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word childlessness.

Examples

  • According to the National Marriage Project, the incidence of childlessness is growing across the socioeconomic scale.

    Forbes? YOU SUCK. « Love | Peace | Ohana 2006

  • Diamond's book will help scare bright and impressionable young people into childlessness, which is turning out to be a much worse problem for civilization than the deforestation that scares Diamond.

    Easterbrook vs. Diamond Steve Sailer 2005

  • Diamond's book will help scare bright and impressionable young people into childlessness, which is turning out to be a much worse problem for civilization than the deforestation that scares Diamond.

    Archive 2005-01-30 Steve Sailer 2005

  • Faced with the reality of being alone for the first time she talked openly and honestly with John about her feelings: her disgust with herself, her fear of failing at her job, her growing conviction that her childlessness was a punishment, and the frequent wish that she could simply die and put an end to her misery.

    Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

  • Faced with the reality of being alone for the first time she talked openly and honestly with John about her feelings: her disgust with herself, her fear of failing at her job, her growing conviction that her childlessness was a punishment, and the frequent wish that she could simply die and put an end to her misery.

    Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

  • I agree that she is wrong to associate feminism in total as culprit to 'childlessness'.

    Oh, Rebecca, Rebecca: Forgive Your Mother Already! Anxious Black Woman 2008

  • I found a number of books that focused on "childlessness" and being "childfree," but most of them focused only on women's experiences.

    Excerpt: Families of Two by Laura Carroll 2000

  • I call it "childlessness" or one of -- one of the costs that is -- that are so high in this country.

    CNN Transcript - Sunday Morning News: What is the Price of Motherhood? - February 18, 2001 2001

  • Even more marked differences in childlessness by race and ethnicity are reflected among women who have never married.

    White women more likely to be childless, Census says 2011

  • One of the things that goes hand-in-hand with childlessness is high levels of education, says D'Vera Cohn of Pew Research Center, who co-authored a report on childlessness last year.

    White women more likely to be childless, Census says 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.