Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Unobtrusive |
UnobtrusiveAdjective1. Not obtrusive or undesirably noticeable; "a quiet, unobtrusive life of self-denial". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "unobtrusive" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1811. (references) |
Synonym: UnobtrusiveSynonym: unnoticeable (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: obtrusive (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: Unobtrusive |
| English words defined with "unobtrusive": Inobtrusive ♦ unnoticeable, unobtrusively. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Civil Liberties | China | However, many small family churches, generally made up of family members and friends, that conduct activities similar to those of home Bible study groups, usually were tolerated by the authorities as long as they remained small and unobtrusive. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Unobtrusive" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Unobtrusive" is used about 149 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% | 149 | 25,810 |
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 |
tone unobtrusive | 3 |
blocking network protection unobtrusive using | 3 |
observation unobtrusive | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "unobtrusive"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | modest (decent, decently, demure, diffident, discreet, humble, lowly, modest, neat, quiet, unassertive, unpretentious), i rezervuar (booked, laid up, offish, reserve, self contained, stand offish, withdrawn). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | غير بارز (inappreciable, inconspicuous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | скромен (abstemious, chaste, conservative, decent, decorous, demure, frugal, humble, maidenlike, maidenly, mean, modest, obscure, quakerish, quiet, retiring, shamefaced, simple, small, unambitious, unassuming, unpresuming, unpretending, unpretentious), неочебиен, ненатрапчив (unostentatious), дискретен (discreet, quiet). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 不"突. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | nevtíravý, nenápadný (inconspicuous, quiet, stealthy, unostentatious), diskrétní (discreet, quiet, tactful), decentní (quiet). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | فاقدجسارت , محجوب (Decent, Diffident, Timid, Unassertive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | pas trop visible. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | unaufdringlich (decent, discreet, retiringly, subtle, unassuming, understated, unostentatious), bescheiden (abstemious, bestow upon, decide upon, demure, frugal, grant, humble, humbly, lowlily, lowly, moderate, modest, modestly, plain, small, to humble, unassuming, unboastful, unpretentious, unpretentiously). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | ταπεινόσ (abject, humble, low, lowly, menial, reverent, unpretentious). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | לא מתבלט. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | szerény (austere, exiguous, have no side, humble, lowly, low-pitched, meek, mite, modest, sedate, to help sy in one's small way, unassertive, unassuming). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | rendah hati (modest). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | discreto (decent, discreet, discrete, fair, fairly good, moderate, tolerable). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 겸손한 (modest). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | obtrusiveunay sem dar na vista, discreto (circumspect, considerate, discreet, discrete, reticent, thought-out, well-thought-out, wizard), comedido (abstemious, moderate, prudent, reasonable, restrained, sober, staid, temperate). (various references) modest (cheap, demure, diffident, discreet, frugal, grave, homely, humble, humbly, low, lowly, maiden, maidenly, modest, plain, quakerish, quiet, retiring, simple, unassuming, unpretending, unpretentious), discret (circumspect, delicate, discreet, hushed, maiden, mellow, reserved, secret, secretive, silent, subdued). (various references) скромный (decent, demure, hamble, humble, low life, mean, modest, self-effacing, unassertive, unassuming, unostentatious, unpretending, unpretentious), ненавязчивый (unostentatious). (various references) povučen (aloof, coy, demure, recluse, remote, reticent, retiring, undemonstrative, withdrawn), nenametljiv. (various references) discreto (badinage, discreet, discrete, gentle, inconspicuous). (various references) tillbakadragen (demure, offish, retired, withdrawn), inte påträngande, försynt (considerate, modest, unassuming), diskret (discreet, discrete, discretely, gentle, quiet). (various references) mütevazi (demiss, hat in hand, humble, meek, modest, pudent, small, unassuming, unpresuming, unpretending, unpretentious), kendi halinde (composed, composedly, inoffensive, placid, simple, simple minded, simple-hearted), göze çarpmayan (conservative, inconspicuous, retiring). (various references) скромний (bashful, blushing, chaste, coy, decent, demure, discreet, humble, lowly, maidenlike, maidenly, modest, nice, quiet, retiring, sedate, simple, spare). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "unobtrusive": unobtrusively, unobtrusiveness, unobtrusivenesses. (additional references) | |
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"Unobtrusive" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: onobtrusive, unobrusive, unobsrusive, unobstrusive, unoptrusive. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "unobtrusive" (pronounced u'nubtruw"siv) |
| 8 | -u b t r uw" s i v | obtrusive. |
| 6 | -t r uw" s i v | intrusive. |
| 4 | -uw" s i v | abusive, allusive, collusive, conclusive, conducive, elusive, exclusive, illusive, inclusive, inconclusive, nonexclusive, reclusive. |
| 3 | -s i v | abrasive, adhesive, aggressive, apprehensive, aversive, coercive, cohesive, comprehensive, compulsive, convulsive, corrosive, counteroffensive, decisive, defensive, depressive, derisive, discursive, dismissive, dispersive, divisive, effusive, erosive, evasive, excessive, expansive, expensive, explosive, expressive, extensive, hypertensive, impassive, impressive, impulsive, incisive, indecisive, inexpensive, inoffensive, invasive, massive, missive, nonresponsive, obsessive, offensive, oppressive, passive, pensive, permissive, persuasive, pervasive, possessive, progressive, recessive, reflexive, regressive, repressive, repulsive, responsive, submissive, subversive, successive, unimpressive, unresponsive. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-e-i-n-o-r-s-t-u-u-v" | |
-1 letter: subroutine. | |
-2 letters: obtrusive, venturous. | |
-3 letters: bornites, bounties, bouviers, burnouts, burstone, investor, outburns, routines, snoutier, souvenir, tribunes, tuberous, turbines, venturis, virtuose, virtuous, vitreous. | |
-4 letters: boniest, bornite, bournes, bouvier, bovines, brunets, bunters, burnets, burnies, burnous, burnout, burtons, bustier, envious, inburst, inverts, nervous, nitrous, niveous, norites, nutsier, obtuser, obverts, oestrin, orbiest, orients, ourebis, outburn, outruns, outvies, renvois. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-e-i-n-o-r-s-t-u-u-v" | |
+2 letters: unobtrusively. | |
+4 letters: unobtrusiveness. | |
| 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. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)55 6E 6F 62 74 72 75 73 69 76 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)..- -. --- -... - .-. ..- ... .. ...- . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010101 01101110 01101111 01100010 01110100 01110010 01110101 01110011 01101001 01110110 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)U n o b t r u s i v e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0055 006E 006F 0062 0074 0072 0075 0073 0069 0076 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5580816886848785758871 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Rhymes 11. Anagrams 12. Orthography | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
