| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| faithless |
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| SYLLABICATION: | faith·less |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  f th l s |
| ADJECTIVE: | 1. Not true to duty or obligation; disloyal. 2. Having no religious faith. 3. Unworthy of faith or trust; unreliable. | | OTHER FORMS: | faithless·ly —ADVERB
faithless·ness —NOUN
| | SYNONYMS: | faithless, unfaithful, false, disloyal, traitorous, treacherous, perfidious These adjectives mean not true to duty or obligation. Faithless and unfaithful imply failure to adhere to promises, obligations, or allegiances: was faithless to her ideals; an unfaithful spouse. False emphasizes deceitfulness: “To thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/Thou canst not then be false to any man” (Shakespeare). One who is disloyal betrays an allegiance: disloyal staff members who exposed the senator's indiscretions. Traitorous most commonly refers to disloyalty to a government or nation: a traitorous double agent. Treacherous suggests a propensity for betraying trust or faith: “She gave the treacherous impulse time to subside” (Henry James). Perfidious suggests vileness of behavior and often deceitfulness: a perfidious assassin.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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