Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Unctuous |
UnctuousAdjective1. Unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech; "buttery praise"; "gave him a fulsome introduction"; "an oily sycophantic press agent"; "oleaginous hypocrisy"; "smarmy self-importance"; "the unctuous Uriah Heep". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "unctuous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Unctuous \Unc"tu*ous\, adjective. [French expression onctueux, Late Latin expression unctuosus, from the Latin expression unctus anointment, from ungere, unctum, to anoint. See Unguent.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Food & Agriculture | Term applied to wines which are smooth, soft and full on the palate. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | Greasy or soapy to the touch, as certain magnesian minerals. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: UnctuousSynonyms: buttery (adj), fulsome (adj), oily (adj), oleaginous (adj), smarmy (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Flattery | Adjective: flattering;Verb: adulatory; mealy-mouthed, honey-mouthed; honeyed; smooth, smooth-tongued; soapy, oily, unctuous, |
Impiety | Hypocritical; (false); canting, pietistical, sanctimonious, unctuous, pharisaical, overrighteous, righteous over much. |
Unctuousness | Adjective: unctuous, oily, oleaginous, adipose, sebaceous; unguinous; fat, fatty, greasy; waxy, butyraceous, soapy, saponaceous, pinguid, lardaceous; slippery. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Unctuous |
| English words defined with "unctuous": Adipocere ♦ Bee glue, buttery ♦ fulsome, fulsomely ♦ Mellowy ♦ oily, oleaginous ♦ Petrostearine, Pinguid, Pipe clay ♦ smarmily, smarmy ♦ Unctious, Unctuosity, unctuously, Unguinous. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "unctuous": amorphous wax ♦ petrolatum wax. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "unctuous": unguent. (references) |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Unctuous. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Unctuous" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Unctuous" is used about 28 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% | 28 | 65,706 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "unctuous": user-unctuous. | |
| 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. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
unctuous | 18 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "unctuous"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | vajor (oily, oleaginous), i lyrët. (various references) | |
Arabic | متملق (blandly, coaxing, courtly, fawning, ingratiating, insinuating, oily, oleaginous, slimy, smooth, soapy, wheedling), مداهن (blandly, oily), غني بالمادة العضوية, زيتي (greasy, oil, oily, ornamental), زلق (lubricate, lubricious, slick, slip, slippery, slippy, slither, sweep), أملس (downy, lubricious, sleek, slick, smooth, soapy, unruffled). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | угодлив (compliant), тлъст (adipose, fat, fatty, greasy, gross, pinguid, porky, puddingy, rank, rich, tallowy), гладък (clean, even, facile, flat, fluent, fluid, glace, level, lubricous, round, satiny, sleek, slick, smooth, unruffled), маслен (buttery, butyric, oil, oleaginous, short), мазен (fat, fatty, greasy, mellow, oily, oleaginous, pinguid, rich, sleek, slimy, soapy, treacly, yolky), притворен. (various references) | |
Czech | mastný (fatty, greasy, oily). (various references) | |
Danish | lækker, glat (smooth). (various references) | |
Dutch | zalvend, zacht (gentle, mild, soft, sweet, tender), onctueux. (various references) | |
Farsi | مداهنه امیز, چرب ونرم (Sleek, Voluble), چرب (Fat, Fatty, Greasy, Oily, Sebaceous), روغنی (Greasy, Oily). (various references) | |
Finnish | täyteläinen (full-bodied, mellow, plump, rich), suuntäyttävä (full falvour, full taste), mehevä (juicy, succulent). (various references) | |
French | onctueux (unctious). (various references) | |
German | salbungsvoll (sententious, sententiously, unctious, unctuously). (various references) | |
Greek | γλοιώδησ (clammy, mucilaginous, mucous, oozy, slimy, sticky, viscid), μαλακόσ (compliant, crumby, malleable, meek, mellow, mild, quaggy, smooth, soft, softy, squashy, subdued, waxen), ελαιώδησ (oily, oleaginous, oleic, unguentary), λιπαρόσ (fatty, greasy, oily, oleaginous, tallowy), λιπαρός (greasy). (various references) | |
Hebrew | שמן (adipose, buxom, corpulent, fat, fatty, fertile, fleshy, greasy, oil, robust, stout, thick), שמ ו י (fattish, greasy, oily). (various references) | |
Hungarian | kenetteljes (greasy, oily, sanctified, sanctimonial, sanctimonious). (various references) | |
Italian | untuoso(grasso), untuoso (fat, fatty, greasy, lubricious, oily, sleazy, smarmy, smeary, smooth, smudgy, unctious), strisciante (creeping, cringing, groveling, grovelling, reptant), cremoso (creamy). (various references) | |
Manx | smarree (greasing, greasy), ooillagh (oily). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | uousunctay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | untuoso (buttery, greasy, oleaginous, soapy, tallowy). (various references) | |
Romanian | unsuros (fat, fatty, fattyoleous, greasy, oily, sleek, smeary, sticky), uns (anointed, greased, greasy), slinos, onctuos (greasy, oilily, oily), mieros (cajoling, greasy, honeyed, ingratiating, oilily, oily, silky, sleek, smooth, smooth-faced, soapy, sugary), maleabil (amenable, easy, flexibile, flexile, malleable, pliable, pliant, soft, tractable, yielding), lipicios (adhesive, agglutinative, gluey, glutinous, gummy, limy, mucous, slimy, sticky, tacky, viscous), gras (beefy, corpulent, fat, fatty, greasy, handsomely, oily, porky, puffy, pursy, rich, rotund, sticky, stout, well fed). (various references) | |
Russian | елейный (churchy, oleaginous, saponaceous, smarmy, treacly). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | uljast (oily, oleaginous), ublažujući (mitigating, soothing), zanosan (captivating, engrossing, enthusiastic, ravishing), mastan (fat, fatty, greasy, oleaginous, racy, rich, risque, scabrous, sebaceous), blag (benign, bland, clement, genial, gentle, lenient, light, meek, mellow, melting, mild, permissive, placable, tender). (various references) | |
Spanish | untuoso (fatty, greasy, lubricious, sleazy, smeary, smudgy). (various references) | |
Swedish | smetig (dauby, smeary), salvelsefull, oljig (fat, fatty, greasy, oily, oleaginous, pinguid), med fetma, inställsam (ingratiating, insinuating, obsequious, oily, slimy, smarmy, supple, wheedling), flottig (fat, greasy). (various references) | |
Turkish | yoğurulabilen, yapmacık samimiyet gösteren, yağlı (adipose, fat, fatty, greasy, oiled, oily, oleaginous, sebaceous, smeary, tallowy), kaypak (elusive, greasy, lubricous, shifty, sleek, slippery, unreliable). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | "лейний (churchy, oily, saponaceous, sleek, soapy), маслянистий (buttery, oil, oily, oleaginous). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | unctus. (various references) |
| Medieval Latin | 700-1500 | unctuosus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "unctuous": unctuously, unctuousness, unctuousnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Unctuous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: nuctous, onctuous, uncteous, unctious, unctous, unctuos, uncuous. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "unctuous" (pronounced u"ngkhwus) |
| 4 | -kh w u s | impetuous, incestuous, sumptuous. |
| 3 | -w u s | assiduous, fatuous, inconspicuous, marquess, presumptuous, promiscuous, sensuous, sinuous, tenuous, tortuous, unambiguous, voluptuous. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-n-o-s-t-u-u-u" | |
-2 letters: counts. | |
-3 letters: conus, count, scout, snout, tonus, uncos, uncus, uncut. | |
-4 letters: cons, cost, cots, cuts, nous, nuts, onus, oust, outs, scot, scut, snot, stun, tons, tuns, unco, unto. | |
-5 letters: con, cos, cot, cut, nos, not, nus, nut, ons, out, son, sot, sou, sun, ton, tun, uns, uts. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-n-o-s-t-u-u-u" | |
+2 letters: unctuously. | |
+4 letters: subcutaneous, unctuousness. | |
+5 letters: mucocutaneous. | |
| 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. Images: Photo Album | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 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.
