Homeless means having nowhere to live. The homeless, made homeless, homeless families.
The word covers far more than sleeping rough: most homeless people in Britain are in temporary accommodation, and the legal test is having no home you are entitled to occupy. Charities now prefer people experiencing homelessness.
1adjectivehomelessHaving nowhere to live.
“The charity gives hot meals to homeless people sleeping on the streets.”
homeless is a state.
Old English hamleas is home plus -less, with cognates across the Germanic languages.
Old English
hāmlēas
Middle English
*homles
English, today
homeless
From Middle English homles, from Old English hāmlēas. From Middle English homles, hamles, from Old English hāmlēas (“homeless”), equivalent to home + less. Cognate with Dutch heemloos, Danish hjemløs (“homeless”), Swedish hemlös (“homeless”). Compare also German heimatlos (“homeless”), Icelandic heimilislaus (“homeless”), West Frisian dakleas (“homeless”) literally “having no roof, roofless”.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA