idleness

C2+ Topic:Abstract Ideas

US /ˈaɪdəlnəs/ UK /ˈaɪdəlnəs/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
the state of being inactive, unoccupied, or lazy

Long days of idleness left him restless and bored.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · the state of being... inactivity laziness indolence sloth leisure inertia

Opposites

industry activity diligencebusyness

Word family

Related forms idle idler idly

Appears in

Proverbs (1)

See all

Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease

Etymology

From Old English idelnes ('emptiness, frivolity, idleness'), from idel ('empty, vain, useless') + -nes. Idel is of uncertain ultimate origin within West Germanic.

idel Middle English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Abstract Ideas Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# idleness

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈaɪdəlnəs/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈaɪdəlnəs/

## Meanings
1. the state of being inactive, unoccupied, or lazy

## Examples
- Long days of idleness left him restless and bored.

## Synonyms
- inactivity
- laziness
- indolence
- sloth
- leisure
- inertia

## Antonyms
- industry
- activity
- diligence
- busyness

## Related Forms
- idle
- idler
- idly

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: idel

## Etymology
From Old English idelnes ('emptiness, frivolity, idleness'), from idel ('empty, vain, useless') + -nes. Idel is of uncertain ultimate origin within West Germanic.

## AI Etymology
idleness comes from Old English idelnes ('emptiness, frivolity, idleness'), from idel ('empty, vain, useless') + -nes. Idel is of uncertain ultimate origin within West Germanic. Morphologically, the ending is part of the etymology: the suffix is attached to the older base named in the history, producing a later English derivative. The etymology remains cautious where the history is cautious: comparisons, echoic formation, or disputed derivation do not make the ancestry more definite than the forms actually named. In present English, the noun sense is "the state of being inactive, unoccupied, or lazy", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. The same base also appears in related forms such as idle, idler, and idly. Its semantic neighborhood includes inactivity, laziness, indolence, and sloth, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Old English idel.

## Topics
- Abstract Ideas
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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