English Reference
Adjective

hapless

adj.
C1 Advanced US /ˈhæpɫəs/ UK /hˈæpləs/ hap·less

adj.unlucky or unfortunate. You use this to describe someone who keeps having bad things happen to them.

adj.unlucky or unfortunate; suffering from misfortune. Often used to describe a person or situation that is the victim of circumstances beyond their control.


SIMPLE

The hapless traveler lost his luggage twice in one day.

CONTEXTUAL

The hapless student had to retake the exam three times because of a series of technical errors.

COMPLEX

The hapless protagonist of the novel is constantly at the mercy of his own poor decisions and the cruel whims of fate.

Jacques Tati is the hapless holidaymaker who haunts the wings of a seaside town sometimes as a mute witness, sometimes as an agent of gentle chaos.

The Guardian· 20 Aug 2026

Summed up in a sentence After being shelved as a tax write-off, this Looney Tunes reboot returns and redraws hapless hunter Wile E Coyote as the Erin Brockovich of the cartoon world.

The Guardian· 22 Aug 2026

From about 1400, from hap (“luck”) + -less.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Level C1 · Advanced
Frequency Occasional
Updated