moonless

adj — 3 senses

moonless

adjalso spelled Moonless

Etymology From moon + -less.

1

During which no phase of the Moon is visible to provide light, whether because of cloud cover or because of a new moon.

  • And they played softly in the Aeolian mode a music that was like the wailing of wind through bare branches on a moonless night, and the Red Foliot leaned forth from his high seat and recited this lamentation: […]1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 31:
2

Informal, Of a planet Having no natural satellite.

Derived terms
moonlessly, moonlessness

Moonless

adj

Etymology From Moon + -less.

1

Without the Moon.

  • We believe the Moon has been beneficial for the development of life here, but we do not know whether the Moon was necessary for life. Perhaps if we lived on a Moonless world we would be grateful we did not have one of those huge chunks of rock hanging so close to us in the sky.2002, Stephen Webb, “They Do Not Exist”, in If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens … Where Is Everybody?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life, Copernicus Books in association with Praxis Publishing Ltd., →ISBN, solution 42, “The Moon Is Unique”, page 189:
  • Presumably a Moonless world would still have had weather patterns, including rain, so erosion would have taken place but on a tiny scale compared with what happened when the Moon was so much closer to the Earth.2005, Christopher Knight, Alan Butler, Who Built the Moon?, Watkins Books, →ISBN:
1 more example
  • What might this world lack that is as hard to imagine as the Moon would be on an unMooned Earth? Of what absences are we unaware? As well as an absence, the Moonless world would be marked by difference. Folklore, nocturnal action and assignation, marine and maritime life: all would be otherwise.2019, Oliver Morton, The Moon: A History for the Future, The Economist Books, →ISBN, →LCCN:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for moonless and Moonless.