as in powerlessness
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Recent Examples of helplessness
Retí’s is the standout performance, cogently mapping a mother’s tenacity buckling under a mounting feeling of helplessness at watching her child disappear into a mystery.
—
Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 16 Apr. 2026
Different circumstances, and yet his helplessness, medicine’s helplessness, felt the same.
—Courtney Crowder, USA Today, 10 Apr. 2026
The contest over causation goes to parents’ simultaneous senses of responsibility and helplessness about their children’s fates.
—Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 9 Apr. 2026
What that’s code for — and what’s piquing Andrew’s caretaker tendencies along with his pheromones — is a certain kind of big-eyed helplessness.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 7 Apr. 2026
Anger and helplessness drive some young people to Nick Fuentes, others to Hasan Piker, and others still to fentanyl or 20-hour days of Fortnite.
—George Packer, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2026
Cinematographer Ben Goodman straddles the line between both with sharp lensing that places particular emphasis on overhead shots, underlining Caplan’s horizontal helplessness.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026
For years, people who lived just outside the urban center of Boca Raton complained to each other about the massive new buildings going up all around Palmetto Park Boulevard and Mizner Park, but these conversations always ended with the same sense of helplessness.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 11 Mar. 2026
There’s a level of helplessness that drags up, being surrounded by AI tools and AI updates and AI jobs, only to be faced with an idiot parent or friend or casual acquaintance using AI to justify their shitty actions towards you.
—Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 11 Mar. 2026
Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 16 Apr. 2026
Different circumstances, and yet his helplessness, medicine’s helplessness, felt the same.
—Courtney Crowder, USA Today, 10 Apr. 2026
The contest over causation goes to parents’ simultaneous senses of responsibility and helplessness about their children’s fates.
—Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 9 Apr. 2026
What that’s code for — and what’s piquing Andrew’s caretaker tendencies along with his pheromones — is a certain kind of big-eyed helplessness.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 7 Apr. 2026
Anger and helplessness drive some young people to Nick Fuentes, others to Hasan Piker, and others still to fentanyl or 20-hour days of Fortnite.
—George Packer, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2026
Cinematographer Ben Goodman straddles the line between both with sharp lensing that places particular emphasis on overhead shots, underlining Caplan’s horizontal helplessness.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026
For years, people who lived just outside the urban center of Boca Raton complained to each other about the massive new buildings going up all around Palmetto Park Boulevard and Mizner Park, but these conversations always ended with the same sense of helplessness.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 11 Mar. 2026
There’s a level of helplessness that drags up, being surrounded by AI tools and AI updates and AI jobs, only to be faced with an idiot parent or friend or casual acquaintance using AI to justify their shitty actions towards you.
—Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 11 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for helplessness
Noun
-
Violence can come from feelings of powerlessness and desperation.—
Max Gao,
Variety,
29 Apr. 2026
-
Forced into an uneasy alliance with a sharp-witted poacher living on the margins of society (Kellyman), the two women fight back, turning their powerlessness into strength through violence, wit, and defiance.—
Zac Ntim,
Deadline,
27 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Depending on the use case, that information may include security architectures, cryptographic implementations, authentication and access-control logic, vulnerability remediation code, trade secrets, and other proprietary business logic.—
Emily Hallas,
The Washington Examiner,
30 Apr. 2026
-
The vulnerability and exploit code that exploits it were released Wednesday evening by researchers from security firm Theori, five weeks after privately disclosing it to the Linux kernel security team.—
Scharon Harding,
ArsTechnica,
30 Apr. 2026
Noun
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On the other hand, planting the wrong neighbors next to garlic can lead to altered flavors, stunted growth, increased susceptibility to pests, and decreased production.—
Lauren Landers,
Better Homes & Gardens,
21 Apr. 2026
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Investigators also found that the bridge's susceptibility to collapse if it was hit was well above federal thresholds.—
Jeanine Santucci,
USA Today,
10 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Helplessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/helplessness. Accessed 1 May. 2026.
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