Definitions

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

  • adverb in a wordless manner

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

  • adverb without speaking

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From word + -less + -ly.

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Examples

  • There was no answering flash among the roiling shadows, no snake shape calling wordlessly to them.

    Dancer's Illusion Maxwell, Ann 1988

  • And now he's at the podium and his escort steps back out of the light and Caesar stands there wordlessly for a long, long moment, which has everyone a little nervous.

    Aaron Sorkin: Why the Sublime Schtick of Sid Caesar Still Matters Aaron Sorkin 2011

  • I once saw one in which Isabella's response to the proposal was to turn wordlessly and stalk off the stage.

    Measure For Measure deliasherman 2010

  • The films wander wordlessly with documentary footage of the earth's poor and rich and animation—an early warning of what man is doing to his environment—combined with Mr. Glass's deliriously wondrous, pulsating, hypnotic music that completely envelops you.

    Eastern Arts Come to 'Far West' Paul Levy 2011

  • Ashley gets out of the car and wordlessly click-clacks her way up to the building's entrance where she pauses at the doors, and ten seconds later gets buzzed in.

    Getting Sideways On Douglas Joseph M. Owens 2011

  • And now he's at the podium and his escort steps back out of the light and Caesar stands there wordlessly for a long, long moment, which has everyone a little nervous.

    Aaron Sorkin: Why the Sublime Schtick of Sid Caesar Still Matters Aaron Sorkin 2011

  • Long nights on the road and into the ravines, wondering wordlessly how far they had traveled and where they were going, wondering and forgetting and consulting again the map, although they now travelled those forests beyond the forests on maps, the forests inferred alone by the absence of lines and words.

    The Clown Show Robert Kloss 2011

  • The dirtbike man appears and wordlessly reaches down and helps me lift him.

    The Last Highway Jonathan Sapers 2011

  • Conleth smirked at the king, and his eyes said wordlessly, “You have got to be kidding me.”

    Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » The Five Page Challenge! 2009

  • Hearing me drone on in this vein about 30 years ago, Amis fils (who contributes a highly lucid introduction to this collection) wordlessly handed me The Drowned World, The Day of Forever, and, for a shift in pace and rhythm, Crash.

    The Catastrophist 2010

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