moonless
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.06 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
During which no phase of the Moon is visible to provide light, whether because of cloud cover or because of a new moon.
adj
Without the Moon.
Example Sentences
- "And they played softly in the Aeolian mode a music that was like the wailing of wind through bare branches on a moonless night, and the Red Foliot leaned forth from his high seat and recited this lamentation: […]"
- "We believe the Moon has been beneficial for the development of life here, but we do not know whether the Moon was necessary for life. Perhaps if we lived on a Moonless world we would be grateful we did not have one of those huge chunks of rock hanging so close to us in the sky."
- "Presumably a Moonless world would still have had weather patterns, including rain, so erosion would have taken place but on a tiny scale compared with what happened when the Moon was so much closer to the Earth."
- "What might this world lack that is as hard to imagine as the Moon would be on an unMooned Earth? Of what absences are we unaware? As well as an absence, the Moonless world would be marked by difference. Folklore, nocturnal action and assignation, marine and maritime life: all would be otherwise."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *meh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s Proto-Germanic *mēnô Proto-West Germanic *mānō Old English mōna Middle English mone English moon Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Proto-Germanic *-lausaz Proto-West Germanic *-laus Old English -lēas Middle English -les English -less English moonless From moon + -less.
Word Breakdown
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Astronomy.