Sightless means unable to see, or blind. A sightless person navigates the world without using their eyes, relying instead on their other senses like hearing, touch, and smell to understand their surroundings.

The word emphasizes the absence of sight rather than just stating blindness directly. When a writer describes a character as sightless, it often draws attention to how that person experiences the world differently. A sightless musician might develop extraordinary hearing abilities, detecting subtle changes in pitch and rhythm that others miss. A sightless reader uses their fingertips to read Braille, feeling raised dots that represent letters and words.

Sometimes sightless is used poetically to describe things beyond literal blindness. A sightless cave is one without any light, making vision impossible even for those who can see. When someone makes a sightless decision, they're acting without being able to see the full picture or consequences.

Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf from early childhood, became a celebrated author and advocate. Her life showed that being sightless meant finding different paths to knowledge and connection.