Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Unassuming |
UnassumingAdjective1. Not arrogant or presuming; "unassuming to a fault, skeptical about the value of his work"; "a shy retiring girl". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "unassuming" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
Synonym: UnassumingSynonym: retiring (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Modesty | Unpretending, unpretentious; unobtrusive, unassuming, unostentatious, unboastful, unaspiring; poor in spirit. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Unassuming |
| English words defined with "unassuming": unassumingly. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
William Wordsworth | Thou unassuming common-place of Nature, with that homely face. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| "Unassuming" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Unassuming" is used about 99 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% | 99 | 32,870 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; 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. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
unassuming | 8 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "unassuming"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | pa pretendime, i thjeshtë (abecedarian, artless, austere, bare, chaste, childlike, common, easy, elementary, enlisted, folksy, foolproof, Hick, home-bred, homely, homespun, humble, inelaborate, informal, ingenuous, inornate, mere, modest, native, natural, neat, not mingled, onefold, ordinary, plain, prime, primitive, private, pure, quotidian, rude, russet, rustic, simple, unaffected, unceremonious, unpretending, unpretentious, unsophisticated, very). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | متواضع (humble, inconsiderable, insignificant, little, modest, negligible, slight, small, trivial, unpretentious), غير مدع (unpretending). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | скромен (abstemious, chaste, conservative, decent, decorous, demure, frugal, humble, maidenlike, maidenly, mean, modest, obscure, quakerish, quiet, retiring, shamefaced, simple, small, unambitious, unobtrusive, unpresuming, unpretending, unpretentious), непретенциозен (comfortable, humble, modest, unambitious, unaspiring). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | skromný (abstemious, demure, frugal, humble, limited, lowly, modest, reserved, retiring, unpretentious), nenároèný (undemanding). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | فروتن (Courteous, Daft, Humble, Low, Lowly, Meek, Modest, Slight, Submissive, Unpretentious, Venal), ساده (Bald, Bare, Downright, Explicit, Homespun, Idiot, Inexpensive, Plain, Positive, Simple, Slick, Unaadorned, Unaffected, Unceremonious, Unmeaning, Untutored), افتاده (Low, Lowly, Meek, Modest), بی تکلف (Simple, Unpretentious), بی تصنع , بی ادعا. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | vaatimaton (modest, simple, unpretentious), vähäeleinen, eleetön (demure, expressionless). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | sans prétention (unpretentious), modeste. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | bescheiden (abstemious, bestow upon, decide upon, demure, frugal, grant, humble, humbly, lowlily, lowly, moderate, modest, modestly, plain, small, to humble, unboastful, unobtrusive, unpretentious, unpretentiously). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | μετριόφρων (modest), μετριόφρονασ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | לא יומר י (low brow), צ וע (demure, homely, humble, lowly, meek, modest, neat, prude). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | igénytelen (austere, devoid of all pretence, frugal, modest, self-denying, undemanding, unpretending). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | senza pretese (unpretending), modesto (chaste, coy, demure, diffident, homely, humble, inconspicuous, lowly, moderate, modest, plain, quiet, self-effacing, temperate, unpretentious). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | neufroaishagh, gyn daanys. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | assumingunay singelo (homely, plain, self-effacing, simple, single, straightforward), simples (artless, chaste, classic, classical, convenient, easy, frugal, green, guileless, homely, homespun, humble, ingenuous, innocent, inornate, matter-of-course, mere, modest, natural, onefold, outage, plain, primary, pure, regular, self-effacing, sheer, shirt-sleeve, simple, simple-hearted, single, singles, smattering, soft, sole, solitary, straightforward, unaffected, unlaboured, unostentatious, unsophisticated, unvarnished, unworldly), sem pretensões (self-effacing, unpretending, unpretentious), modesto (blushful, coy, demure, homely, humble, lowly, modest, plain, self-effacing, shamefaced, unassertive, unostentatious, unpretending, unpretentious). (various references) simplu (agrestic, artless, austere, average, bald, bare, common, easy, elementary, grave, home-bred, homely, homespun, humble, humbly, mere, modest, natural, neat, patriarchal, plain, plainly, primitive, pure, quiet, ready, russet, segregate, simple, simple minded, simply, single, singular, soft-headed, straight, straightforward, unaffected, undisguised, unpretending, unpretentious, unsophisticated, unvarnished), modest (cheap, demure, diffident, discreet, frugal, grave, homely, humble, humbly, low, lowly, maiden, maidenly, modest, plain, quakerish, quiet, retiring, simple, unobtrusive, unpretending, unpretentious), cuminte (clever, dutiful, foreseeing, good, level, quiet, quietly, reasonable, sapient, sensible, serious, well advised, wise, wisely). (various references) скромный (decent, demure, hamble, humble, low life, mean, modest, self-effacing, unassertive, unobtrusive, unostentatious, unpretending, unpretentious), непритязательный (homely, lowbrow, unpretentious). (various references) skroman (diffident, douce, frugal, humble, modest, retiring, self-effacing, unostentatious, unpretending, unpretentious). (various references) no pretencioso (unpretentious), modesto (demure, inconspicuous, lower, modest, modeste, retiring, undemanding, unostentatious, unpretentious). (various references) anspråkslös (humble, informal, lowly, modest, quiet, unambitious, unpretentious). (various references) mütevazi (demiss, hat in hand, humble, meek, modest, pudent, small, unobtrusive, unpresuming, unpretending, unpretentious), iddiasız (fluffy, go-as-you-please, undemanding, unpretending, unpretentious), alçakgönüllü (decent, demiss, frugal, hat in hand, humble, low, lowly, meek, meek-spirited, modest, pudent, simple, simple minded, simple-hearted, submissive, unpresuming, unpretending, unpretentious). (various references) невибагливий (homely, lowbrow, promiscuous, unpretending). (various references) khiêm tốn (humble, modest, unobstrusive, unpresuming, unpresumptuous, unpretending, unpretentious), không tự phụ (unpresuming, unpresumptuous, unpretending, unpretentious). (various references) diymhongar. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | dimissa, dimissam, dimissi, dimissis, dimisso, dimissum, dimissus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "unassuming": unassumingness, unassumingnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Unassuming" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: unaccusing, unastounding. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "unassuming" (pronounced u'nusuw"ming) |
| 6 | -u s uw" m i ng | assuming. |
| 5 | -s uw" m i ng | consuming. |
| 4 | -uw" m i ng | blooming, booming, dooming, fuming, grooming, looming, presuming, resuming, rooming, zooming. |
| 3 | -m i ng | acclaiming, affirming, aiming, alarming, arming, barnstorming, beaming, becoming, blaming, blossoming, bombing, bottoming, brainstorming, brimming, calming, charming, claiming, climbing, combing, coming, condemning, confirming, conforming, cramming, damming, damning, daydreaming, deprogramming, diagraming, dimming, disarming, disclaiming, dreaming, drumming, dumbing, embalming, exclaiming, farming, filming, firebombing, firming, flaming, foaming, forming, forthcoming, framing, gaming, gleaming, gloaming, harming, heartwarming, helming, hemming, homecoming, homing, humming, incoming, inflaming, informing, jamming, lambing, lemming, liming, maiming, mainstreaming, misinforming, mushrooming, naming, nonperforming, numbing, oncoming, outperforming, overcoming, overwhelming, performing, plumbing, priming, proclaiming, programing, programming, ramming, reaffirming, rearming, reclaiming, redeeming, reforming, renaming, reprogramming, rhyming, roaming, scheming, screaming, seeming, shaming, shortcoming, skimming, slamming, slimming, squirming, steaming, stemming, storming, streaming, strumming, succumbing, summing, swarming, swimming, taming, teaming, teeming, terming, thumbing, timing, transforming, trimming, unbecoming, upcoming, vacuuming, warming, welcoming. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-g-i-m-n-n-s-s-u-u" | |
-1 letter: unamusing. | |
-2 letters: assuming. | |
-3 letters: amusing, guanins, massing, musings, mussing, nanisms. | |
-4 letters: agisms, animus, assign, gamins, guanin, gunman, musing, naming, nanism, numina, saning, sigmas, sunnas, unguis, unmans, unsung. | |
-5 letters: agism, amins, amiss, gains, gamin, gaums, gauss, guans, magus, mains, manus, minas, minus, munis, nisus, sagum, sains, sasin, sigma, signs, simas, sings, sinus, snags, snugs, suing, sunna. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-g-i-m-n-n-s-s-u-u" | |
+4 letters: unassumingness. | |
| 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. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Familiar 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
