Godless means lacking any religion or reverence. A godless age, godless communism, this godless place.
It is always disapproving and always said from inside a faith looking out, which is why nobody applies it to themselves — an unbeliever says atheist or secular. Godless communism was a fixed phrase of Cold War rhetoric.
1adjectivegodlessLacking any religion or reverence.
“The old preacher warned that the city had become a godless place of greed and noise.”
godless is a quality.
God plus -less, on the same pattern as the compound in Dutch and German.
From god + less. Compare stq godloos (“godless”), West Frisian goddeleas (“godless; wicked”), Dutch goddeloos (“godless; wicked”), German Low German gottlos (“godless”), German gottlos (“godless”), Danish gudløse (“godless”), Swedish gudlös (“godless; ungodly”), Icelandic guðlaus (“godless”), Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌿𐍃 (“godless”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA