Inconspicuous

Definition: Inconspicuous

Inconspicuous

Adjective

1. Not prominent or readily noticeable; "he pushed the string through an inconspicuous hole"; "the invisible man".

Date "inconspicuous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1827. (references)

Etymology: Inconspicuous \In`con*spic"u*ous\, adjective. [Latin expression inconspicuus. See In- not, and Conspicuous.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonym: Inconspicuous

Synonym: invisible (adj). (additional references)

Antonym: conspicuous (adj). (additional references)

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	I'm sorry, sir, I tried to be inconspicuous. (Columbo: Negative Reaction; writing credit: Peter S. Fischer)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	From Live to Tape to Film: Sixty Years of Inconspicuous Directing (reference) Inconspicuous (reference) Inconspicuous Consumption: An Obsessive Look at the Stuff We Take for Granted, from the Everyday to the Obscure (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Civil Liberties	Burma	In most regions of the country, Christian and Muslim groups that seek to build small churches or mosques on side streets or other inconspicuous locations at times have been able to proceed, but increasingly only based on informal approval from local authorities. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Inconspicuous" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Inconspicuous" is used about 107 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	107	31,463

Expressions using "inconspicuous": make oneself inconspicuous ♦ remain inconspicuous. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "inconspicuous"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		që s'bie në sy, që nuk zë syrin. (various references)

Arabic		‏غير واضح (cloudy, dull, foggy, fuzziness, fuzzy, indefinite, indistinct, nebulous, unclear, vague), ‏غير جلي (misty), ‏غير بارز (inappreciable, unobtrusive). (various references)

Bulgarian		неразличим (impalpable, indiscernible, indistinguishable, invisible), незабележим (inappreciable, indetectable, indiscernible, indistinguishable, invisible, undistinguishable, unseen). (various references)

Chinese		不显眼. (various references)

Czech		nenápadný (quiet, stealthy, unobtrusive, unostentatious). (various references)

Farsi		ناپیدا (Blind, Indiscernibleable, Latent), نامعلوم (Conditional, Equivocal, Hazy, Incalculable, Indescribable, Indistinct, Invisible, Pendant, Uncertain, Uncharted, Unknown, Unlimited), نامرءی (Sightless), کمرنگ (Lunar, Pale), غیرمحسوس (Impalpable, Imperceptible, Inappreciative, Invisible), غیرمشخص (Noncommittal), غیربرجسته , جزءی (Immaterial, Imperceptible, Inappreciative, Inconsiderable, Little, Minuscule, Minute, Negligible, Nip, Nominal, Paltry, Partial, Peppercorn, Petty, Piddling, Remote, Retail, Rush, Small, Snatch, Trivial, Vain). (various references)

Finnish		huomaamaton (imperceptible, inattentive, unnoticeable, unnoticed). (various references)

French		qui passe inaperçu, peu voyant, discret, � peine visible. (various references)

German		unauffällig (modestly, nondescript, unobtrusive, unobtrusively, without attracting attention). (various references)

Greek		άσημοσ (nameless), αφανήσ (obscure, unseen). (various references)

Hebrew		לא בולט (indistinctive). (various references)

Hungarian		nem feltûnõ, alig észrevehetõ (inappreciable). (various references)

Italian		incospicuo, non appariscente, modesto (chaste, coy, demure, diffident, homely, humble, lowly, moderate, modest, plain, quiet, self-effacing, temperate, unassuming, unpretentious). (various references)

Korean		눈에 띄지 않�". (various references)

Manx		neuvaghtal (abstruse, imperceptible, indistinct, vague), neuchronnal (camouflaged, garbled, imperceptible, indistinct, indistinguishable, sketchy, unclear, vague). (various references)

Pig Latin		inconspicuousay

Portuguese		imperceptível (imperceptible, imperfect, inaugural, indite, undiscriminated), em desacordo (ajar, the odds are, unconforming), apagado (extinct, flat, out, shamefaced, smooth, unassertive). (various references)

Romanian		inobservabil (inobservable, unnoticed, unseen), greu de remarcat. (various references)

Russian		незаметный (imperceptible, inappreciable, noteless, obscure), не привлекающий внимания. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		neupadljiv (average), neugledan (noteless). (various references)

Spanish		que no se destaca, que no llama la atención, poco llamativo (quiet), modesto (demure, lower, modest, modeste, retiring, unassuming, undemanding, unostentatious, unpretentious), discreto (badinage, discontinuous, discreet, discrete, gentle, unobtrusive), apenas visible. (various references)

Swedish		inte iögonenfallande, oansenlig (homely, inconsiderable, insignificant, obscure). (various references)

Turkish		göze çarpmayan (conservative, retiring, unobtrusive), farkedilmez, önemsiz (back burner, derisive, derisory, dinky, empty, fiddling, footling, immaterial, inconsequential, inconsiderable, indifferent, inessential, insignificant, jerkwater, minute, negligible, no-account, non essential, nonessential, not healthy, not worth a fig, null, of no account, of no significance, of no worth, one horse, paltry, paper, peanut, peddling, petty, picayune, picayunish, piddling, poky, potty, quotidian, scrubby, secondary, slight, small, smalltime, trifling, trivial, tuppeny, unessential, unimportant, unsubstantial, worthless, yeasty). (various references)

Ukranian		непримітний (imperceptible). (various references)

Vietnamese		không l�" lộ, không dễ thấy, kín đáo (close, cryptic, cryptically, dark, private, rose, secret, shamefaced, undemonstrative). (various references)

Welsh		anamlwg (obscure). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "inconspicuous": inconspicuously, inconspicuousness, inconspicuousnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Inconspicuous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: inconcpicuous, inconscpicuous, inconspicious, inconspicous, inconspicuos, insconspicuous. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "inconspicuous" (pronounced i'ngkÄ"nspikwus)
4	-k w u s	marquess, promiscuous.
3	-w u s	assiduous, fatuous, impetuous, incestuous, presumptuous, sensuous, sinuous, sumptuous, tenuous, tortuous, unambiguous, unctuous, voluptuous.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "c-c-i-i-n-n-o-o-p-s-s-u-u"
	-2 letters: conspicuous, unconscious.
	-3 letters: concisions, concussion.
	-4 letters: concision, conscious, innocuous, suspicion.
	-5 letters: coniosis, couscous, opinions, opsonins, pocosins, puccoons, soupcons, sponsion.
	Words containing the letters "c-c-i-i-n-n-o-o-p-s-s-u-u"
	+2 letters: inconspicuously.
	+4 letters: inconspicuousness.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.