machteloos

Machteloos is a Dutch adjective meaning lacking power, authority or the ability to act; it is commonly translated as "powerless" or "helpless." The word is formed from macht ("power") and the suffix -eloos, which creates adjectives meaning "without" — a productive pattern in Dutch similar to English -less.

In usage, machteloos describes both physical incapacity and situations of limited influence, as in personal feelings ("een machteloos gevoel") or social and political contexts ("gevoel van machteloosheid" or institutional constraints). It appears in set phrases such as "machteloos toekijken" (to watch helplessly) and is often paired with the noun machteloosheid, denoting the state or condition of being powerless.

Grammatically, machteloos behaves like other Dutch adjectives: it can be used attributively before a noun (adjusting for inflection) or predicatively. Comparative and superlative forms include machtelozer and meest machteloos, though alternative constructions using meer/het meest are also common.

The concept is relevant across disciplines such as psychology, sociology, law and literature, where it describes individual and collective experiences of limited agency. Cognates and near-equivalents exist in related Germanic languages, for example German machtlos and English powerless, reflecting a shared semantic field rather than direct borrowing.