helpless vs incapacitated what difference

what is difference between helpless and incapacitated

English

Etymology

From Middle English helples, from Old English *helplēas (“helpless”) from Proto-Germanic *helpōlausaz, equivalent to help +‎ -less. Compare Dutch hulpeloos (“helpless”), German hilflos (“helpless”), Swedish hjälplös (“helpless”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛlplɪs/
• Hyphenation: help‧less

Adjective

helpless (comparative more helpless, superlative most helpless)

1. Unable to defend oneself.
   • 1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?

     Then when you find yourself lyin’ helpless in her arms

     You know you really love a woman

2. Lacking help; powerless.
3. Unable to act without help; needing help; feeble.
4. Uncontrollable.

   a helpless urge

5. (obsolete) From which there is no possibility of being saved.

   • For, while they fly that gulf’s devouring jawes,
     They on the rock are rent and sunck in helplesse wawes.

Derived terms

• helplessly
• helplessness

Translations

Further reading

• helpless in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• helpless in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Verb

incapacitated

1. simple past tense of incapacitate

Adjective

incapacitated (comparative more incapacitated, superlative most incapacitated)

1. Rendered unable to act; restricted from taking action.

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