What does joyless mean?
Word: Joyless
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Joyless means without any happiness or fun; dull and sad.
Synonyms: gloomy, cheerless, dreary, miserable
Antonyms: joyful, happy
How do you spell joyless?
Syllables: joy - less
Tricky part: Keep the y of joy: it is joy + less, not joiless. The ending -less always has a double s.
Watch out for: joiless, joyles, joyliss
Memory tip: Keep joy whole, then tack on less. The word tells you its own meaning: less joy.
Joyless in a sentence
Example 1: Without our friends, the summer holidays felt long and joyless.
Example 2: The joyless grey wall turned bright after the children painted a mural on it.
Example 3: He ate his joyless meal of plain boiled vegetables in silence.
Fun Fact
The ending -less comes from the Old English leas, meaning free from or lacking. The same ending gives us hundreds of words, from careless to toothless.
Practise the CREST Way
Jumble Tumble
Choose the correct sequence of the jumbled letters to form a meaningful word:
sleyjos 1234567
a) 5642317
b) 5342617
c) 4632517
d) 7654321
Show answer
a) 5642317. Read 5, 6 and 4 for j-o-y, then 2 and 3 for l-e, and finish with the two s's.
Word Tally
How many words are misspelt in the given sentence?
Our trip felt joyless until the bus stopped at a roadside cafe and the driver bougt everyone hot pies.
a) 0
b) 3
c) 2
d) 1
Show answer
d) 1. Only bought is wrong; it needs the h of ought.
Word Puzzle
Match the words in the two lists:
1. joyless 2. tidy 3. brave a. messy b. cheerful c. scared
a) 1-a, 2-c, 3-b
b) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b
c) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c
d) 1-b, 2-c, 3-a
Show answer
c) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c. These are opposites: a joyless face is the reverse of a cheerful one, tidy is the reverse of messy and brave is not scared.
Word Champ
In which option are the given words arranged in alphabetical order?
1. joystick 2. joyful 3. joyous 4. joyless
a) 2341
b) 2413
c) 2431
d) 4231
Show answer
c) 2431. All four begin with j-o-y, so the fourth letter decides: f, l, o, s.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A birthday party would feel joyless with ____.
a) a magician and his funny tricks
b) bright balloons on every wall
c) no friends, no games and no music
d) a big cake and ten candles
Show answer
c) no friends, no games and no music
2. Which word is built the same way as joyless?
a) blessing
b) lesson
c) unless
d) hopeless
Show answer
d) hopeless
