acephalic

Without a head.

an acephalic statue

[…] two acephalic sardines in mustard sauce are asleep in the rank darkness of their tin container.

Characterized by a migraine aura without pain.

Without a leader.

an acephalic society

1688, uncredited translator, A Dissertation Concerning Patriarchal and Metropolitical Authority by Emmanuel Schelstrate, London: Matthew Turner, [Introduction], p. xx, […] he endeavours not only to shew that the English Church was Acephalic, that is, without a Head; but also Autocephalic, that is under its own proper Jurisdiction only […]

Deficient in the beginning, as a line of poetry that is missing its expected opening syllable.

The acephalic pentameters yield to tetrameters with a starting dactyl or anapest […]

Lacking the first portion of the text. (of a manuscript)

All the texts, with the exception of the acephalic Homiletic Fragment I, begin with a large, plain capital letter […]