tailless

The word "tailless" literally means lacking a tail. At first it seems simple, but it can be used in a few different ways. The most common use is for animals. A Manx cat, for example, is famous for being naturally tailless because of a genetic trait. This is not just a short tail; it is the full absence of one.

But "tailless" does not always mean born that way. It can also describe an animal that has lost its tail through injury or removal. You might read about a tailless lizard after an accident, for instance. In aviation, the word appears in phrases like "tailless aircraft," referring to planes designed without the usual tail assembly, such as a flying wing.

The word can also be used more broadly for anything that lacks a tail-like part that people would normally expect to see. In astronomy, for example, a comet may be described as tailless when no visible tail can be seen. This may happen because it is too far from the sun or because the tail is too faint to observe clearly.

There is also a rare figurative use, where "tailless" suggests something cut short or missing an ending, though this is not the main everyday meaning. In all of its uses, the idea stays the same: something is missing the tail, or the tail-like part, that people normally expect to be there.