Unselfish

Definition: Unselfish

Unselfish

Adjective

1. Not selfish.

2. Not greedy.

Date "unselfish" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1788. (references)

Antonym: selfish (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Disinterestedness	Adjective: disinterested; unselfish; self-denying, self-sacrificing, self-devoted; generous.
Liberality	Adjective: liberal, free, generous; charitable; (beneficent); hospitable; bountiful, bounteous; handsome; unsparing, ungrudging; unselfish; open handed, free handed, full handed; open hearted, large hearted, free hearted; munificent, princely.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Unselfish

English words defined with "unselfish": altruism, altruistic ♦ public-spirited ♦ selfless, selflessness ♦ To forget one's self ♦ unselfishly. (references)

Specialty definitions using "unselfish": Cloister ♦ Envy ♦ Oven ♦ Secret Order ♦ Voice. (references)

Domain	Usage
Lyrics	With an unselfish love that respects you (I'll be There; performing artist: Mariah Carey)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	A Barnabas Life-Style: Discovering the Joy of Unselfish Living (reference) Improving Your Serve: The Art of Unselfish Living: Bible Study Guide (reference) Jovita Galan: Unselfish Teacher (Meet the Missionary Series) (reference) Mormon Healer and Folk Poet: Mary Susannah Fowler's Life of Unselfish Usefulness (reference) The unselfish patriot (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
David Thomas	Unselfish and noble actions are the most radiant pages in the biography of souls.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Woodrow Wilson	1913-1921	We always professed unselfish purpose and we covet the opportunity to prove our professions are sincere.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Unselfish" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Unselfish" is used about 80 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%	80	37,112

Expression using "unselfish": unselfish person. 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 "unselfish"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		bujar (big, bounteous, bountiful, disinterested, free-handed, generous, gentle, gentlemanlike, good, good hearted, handsome, lavish, liberal, nobleman, open handed, princely). (various references)

Arabic		‏محب لغيره, ‏غير أناني (altruistic, selfless), ‏إيثاري. (various references)

Bulgarian		самопожертвувателен, щедър (benevolent, bountiful, charitable, flush, free, freehanded, generous, handsome, large handed, large-hearted, liberal, lordly, munificent, openhanded, pickwickian, princely, prodigal, profuse, stintless, ungrudging, unsparing, unstinted), неегоистичен. (various references)

Czech		obìtavý (dedicated, devoted), nesobecký (selfless). (various references)

Farsi		مودب (Courteous, Courtly, Debonair, Decorous, Housebroken, Mannerly, Nice, Respectful, Suave, Urbane), متواضع (Humble), ناخودخواه , بدون خودخواهی . (various references)

Finnish		epäitsekäs (altruistic). (various references)

French		généreux (ungrudging, unsparing). (various references)

German		selbstlos (disinterested, selfless, selflessly, unselfishly). (various references)

Greek		ανιδιοτελήσ (selfless), αφιλοκερδήσ (disinterested, selfless), αφίλαυτοσ. (various references)

Hungarian		önzetlen (altruistic, disinterested, magnanimous, selfless). (various references)

Italian		altruista (altruist, selfless, self-sacrificing). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		無私 (selflessness), 無慾 (disinterested, free of avarice, unavaricious), 無欲 (disinterested, free of avarice, unavaricious). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		むよく (disinterested, free of avarice, unavaricious), むし (baseball with no outs, disregard, ignore, insect, selflessness, steaming, the remote beginnings). (various references)

Pig Latin		elfishunsay

Portuguese		não egoísta, generoso (big heart, boon, bounteous, chivalrous, enlarged, flush, generous, large, large-handed, large-hearted, large-minded, lavish, magnanimous, open-handed, selfless, soft-hearted, ungrudging, unsparing, warm-hearted, whole-souled), desinteressado (aloof, candid, devil-may-care, disinterested, indifferent, laodicean, listless, lukewarm, nonchalant, non-partisan, passive, unbiased, unconcern, unconcerned, uninterested, unworldly), altruísta (altruist, altruistic, selfless). (various references)

Romanian		dezinteresat (detached, disinterested, impersonal), altruist (altruist, altruistic, generous). (various references)

Russian		бескорыстный (disinterested, impersonal, selfless). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		nesebičan (altruistic, pure, selfless), altruističan. (various references)

Spanish		altruista (altruist, altruistic). (various references)

Swedish		osjälvisk (disinterested, self-forgetful, selfless). (various references)

Turkish		kendini düşünmeyen (self-forgetful, selfless), fedakâr (devoted, self denying, self-forgetful, self-sacrificing), bencil olmayan, özverili (devoted, self denying, selfless, self-sacrificing). (various references)

Ukrainian		неегоїстичний. (various references)

Vietnamese		không ích kỷ (selfless). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "unselfish": unselfishly, unselfishness, unselfishnesses. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-f-h-i-l-n-s-s-u"
	-2 letters: finless, flushes, fulness, hisself, infuses, selfish, silenus, sunfish.
	-3 letters: elfins, elfish, filses, fishes, fusels, fusile, fusils, infuse, lunies, lushes, shiels, shines, sinful, unless.
	-4 letters: elfin, files, fines, flesh, flies, flues, flush, fuels, fusel, fuses, fusil, heils, hilus, ileus, isles, issue, lenis, liens, lieus, lines, lunes, neifs, nisus, seifs, selfs, shelf, shiel, shies, shine.
	Words containing the letters "e-f-h-i-l-n-s-s-u"
	+1 letter: lungfishes.
	+2 letters: unselfishly, wishfulness.
	+3 letters: faithfulness, mirthfulness, rightfulness.
	+4 letters: frightfulness, unselfishness, wishfulnesses.
	+5 letters: delightfulness, faithfulnesses, flugelhornists, mirthfulnesses, rightfulnesses, sprightfulness, unfaithfulness, worshipfulness.
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.