Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Unskilled |
UnskilledAdjective1. Not having or showing or requiring special skill or proficiency; "unskilled in the art of rhetoric"; "an enthusiastic but unskillful mountain climber"; "unskilled labor"; "workers in unskilled occupations are finding fewer and fewer job opportunities"; "unskilled workmanship". 2. Lacking professional skill or expertise; "a very amateurish job"; "inexpert but conscientious efforts"; "an unskilled painting". 3. Not doing a good job; "incompetent at chess". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "unskilled" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1415. (references) |
Synonyms: UnskilledSynonyms: amateur (adj), amateurish (adj), incompetent (adj), inexpert (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: skilled (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Desuetude | Adjective: unaccustomed, unused, unwonted, unseasoned, uninured, unhabituated, untrained; new; green; (unskilled); unhackneyed. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Unskilled |
| English words defined with "unskilled": amateur, amateurish, artlessly ♦ bikers ♦ coolie, cooly, crudely ♦ dauber ♦ fiddler, Fresh-water ♦ ham, ham actor, humble ♦ inexpert, inexpertly, Inhabile ♦ lowly, lubberly ♦ menial ♦ Puisne, Puisny ♦ rockers ♦ teddy boys, tinkerer. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "unskilled": EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWER ♦ hag principle ♦ personnel interviewer, placement interviewer ♦ Two L or LL. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "unskilled": inert ♦ Puisny. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Manpower. Negro aircraft propeller workers. American industry develops skilled manpower from many racial groups. In less than six months, Robert Martin, Negro propeller worker, has been promoted from unskilled employment to highly skilled work. Martin is. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Messina, Sicily. Workers outside the labor office where both skilled and unskilled are given assignments for the day. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Aristotle | A democracy is a government in the hands of men of low birth, no property, and unskilled labor. |
Edward Gibbon | Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Unfortunately, HCBC often is "piecework and patchwork" (Kane and Kane, 1987) and characterized by inaccessibility, poor care, unskilled personnel, high out-of-pocket costs, and inadequate linkages to other services, rather than a comprehensive array of services. (references) | |
Business | As a result of inadequate basic education (due to apartheid education policies of the past), South African's main population remains unskilled and unprepared for the workplace, particularly as demand for professionals is growing. (references) | |
Children | Russia | The children are given only minimal care by low-paid unskilled workers with no training in the care of the disabled. (references) |
Economic History | Haiti | Haiti has an abundance of unskilled labor. (references) |
Lithuania | Skilled and unskilled labor are both available. (references) | |
Human Rights | Uzbekistan | In practice most defense lawyers are unskilled at defending their clients and judges rarely give lawyers the opportunity to defend their clients. (references) |
Indigenous People | India | In the Jharkhand area, tribal people complain that they have been relegated to unskilled mining jobs, have lost their forests to industrial construction, and have been displaced by development projects. (references) |
Minorities | Lebanon | Very few Palestinians receive work permits, and those who find work usually are directed into unskilled occupations. (references) |
Political Economy | Kuwait | Domestic servants and unskilled workers often live and work in poor conditions. (references) |
MEXICO | There are special problems in construction, where unskilled, untrained, and poorly educated transient labor is common. (references) | |
OMAN | Whether covered by the law or not, many unskilled foreign workers earn less than the minimum wage and for hours exceeding the 40- to 45-hour private sector work week. (references) | |
Travel | Ghana | Workers are entitled to 14-21 days of annual vacation for unskilled laborers and 21-36 days for skilled and managerial workers. (references) |
Women | Bhutan | Women in unskilled jobs generally are paid slightly less than men. (references) |
Kiribati | Nevertheless, women slowly are finding work in unskilled and semiskilled occupations. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Gambia | The lowest minimum wage is approximately $0.66 (12 dalasi) per day for unskilled labor. (references) |
Togo | Less than the official minimum wage often is paid in practice, mostly to unskilled workers. (references) | |
Singapore | Most foreign workers are unskilled laborers and household servants from other Asian countries. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Unskilled" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Unskilled" is used about 470 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% | 470 | 12,586 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "unskilled": the unskilled labor ♦ the unskilled labour ♦ unskilled job ♦ unskilled labor ♦ unskilled laborer ♦ unskilled labour ♦ unskilled labourer ♦ unskilled person ♦ unskilled worker ♦ unskilled workman. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "unskilled": unskilled-worker. | |
| 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 |
unskilled labor | 23 |
unskilled | 8 |
job unskilled | 6 |
unskilled worker | 3 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "unskilled"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | jo i kualifikuar, i papërvojë (callow, greener, half-baked, inexperienced, raw, sucking, unexperienced, unpractical, unpractised, unschooled, unsophisticated, unversed). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | غير متطلب براعة, غير بارع (amateurish, artless, bungling, clumsy, inapt, inferior, profane, unskilful, unworkmanlike), غر (artless, calf's, callow, child, decoy, half-witted, inexperienced, naive, raw, rude, stranger, young). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | неквалифициран (incompetent, unqualified), неизискващ квалификация. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 不熟练 (inexpert). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | nekvalifikovaný (incompetent, menial, unqualified). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | ufaglaert arbejder (general laborer, general labourer, unskilled laborer, unskilled labourer, unskilled worker), Teknisk medhjælper (general laborer, general labourer, unskilled laborer, unskilled labourer, unskilled worker), medhjaelper (general laborer, general labourer, unskilled laborer, unskilled labourer, unskilled worker), arbejdsmand (general laborer, general labourer, unskilled laborer, unskilled labourer, unskilled worker). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | ongeschoolde arbeidskracht (general laborer, general labourer, unskilled laborer, unskilled labourer, unskilled worker), ongeschoolde arbeider (general laborer, general labourer, unskilled laborer, unskilled labourer, unskilled worker), ongeschoold arbeider (general laborer, general labourer, unskilled laborer, unskilled labourer, unskilled worker), omgeschoolde arbeider (general laborer, general labourer, unskilled laborer, unskilled labourer, unskilled worker), hulparbeider (general laborer, general labourer, unskilled laborer, unskilled labourer, unskilled worker), handlanger (abetter, accessory, accomplice). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | taitamaton (a poor hand, clumsy, incompetent, inexperienced, poor, unskilful), ammattitaidoton. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | inexpert (unworkable), inexpérimenté. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | ungelernt (unskilledly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | χωρίσ πείρα, άπειροσ (callow, green, greenhorn, inexperienced, inexpert, infinite, innumerable, tenderfoot, unpracticed, unpractised, unversed, verdant), ανειδίκευτοσ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | לא מקצועי (lay). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | szakképzetlen (unqualified). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | tak mahir. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | non specializzato, inesperto (callow, fresh, green, inexperienced, inexpert, raw). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 弱い (delicate, frail, tender, weak). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | よわい (age, delicate, frail, tender, weak), みじゅく (immature, inexperience, inexperienced, raw, unripeness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | illedunskay sem experiência (sappy, unfleshed, unpractised, unseasoned), não qualificada, não especializado, não adestrado (untrained), inexperiente (artless, callow, fresh, green, half-baked, inexperienced, muff, outage, raw, shirt-sleeve, sucking, unpractised, unskilful, unsophisticated, untrained, verdant, young). (various references) nepriceput (blockhead, illiterate, incapable, inefficient, inexperienced, inexpert, novice, silly, slouch, unskilful), necalificat (unqualified). (various references) неквалифицированный (unqualified). (various references) nevičan (inept, inexpert, unversed), nevešt (clumsy, inapt, maladroit, unaccomplished, unhandy, unskilful), neobučen (unclad, unclothed, undressed, unmanned, unpractised, untrained). (various references) no capacitado (unqualified), inepto (inapt, inept, unsuitable, useless). (various references) okunnig (ignorant, inexpert, unknowing, untaught, untutored), oerfaren (callow, coltish, fresh, freshwater, green, inexperienced, inexpert, unexperience, unpractised). (various references) vasıfsız (unqualified), deneyimsiz (half-baked, illiterate, inexperienced, inexpert, raw, unpracticed, unpractised, unsophisticated), beceri gerektirmeyen, acemi (apprentice, beginner, bungler, callow, catechumen, clumsy, colt, cub, dabster, green, greenhorn, guiltless, half-baked, inept, inexperienced, inexperienced hand, inexpert, jackaroo, johnny-come-lately, learner, neophyte, new, novice, Prentice, punk, raw, recruit, runnynose, simple, stooge, strange, stranger, sucking, tenderfoot, tiro, trainee, tyro, unbaked, unfledged, unseasoned, untrained, unversed, young, young in one's job). (various references) emelsiz (awkward). (various references) некваліфікований (non-skilled, untrained), невмілий (artless, blundering, botchy, bungling, fumbling, handless, ineffective, inept, inexpert, unskilful). (various references) không thạo (inexpert, unconversant, uninitiated), không khéo (unskilful, untutored, unworkmanlike), không giỏi không chuyên môn hoá, không có chuyên môn. (various references) anghyfarwydd (unfamiliar). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | advena, advenae, advenam, advenarum, advenas, advenis, iners, inperitos, inperitus, inscia, inscii, inscio, inscius. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Unskilled" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Enskilda. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "unskilled" (pronounced unski"ld) |
| 5 | -s k i" l d | skilled. |
| 4 | -k i" l d | killed. |
| 3 | -i" l d | billed, build, Childe, chilled, distilled, drilled, filled, fulfilled, gild, grilled, guild, instilled, milled, rebuild, refilled, spilled, stilled, thrilled, unfilled, unfulfilled, willed. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-i-k-l-l-n-s-u" | |
-2 letters: kindles, skilled, skulled, slinked, sullied, sunlike. | |
-3 letters: duelli, indues, inkles, killed, kilned, kindle, knells, likens, linked, lunies, nilled, nudies, nulled, silked, silken, sulked, sullen, undies, unlike, unsell. | |
-4 letters: deils, delis, dells, dikes, dills, dines, dinks, duels, dukes, dulls, dulse, dunes, dunks, idles, ileus, indue, inked, inkle, isled, kills, kilns, kinds, kines, knell, lends. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-i-k-l-l-n-s-u" | |
+4 letters: unlikelihoods. | |
| 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 73 6B 69 6C 6C 65 64 |
| 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 01110011 01101011 01101001 01101100 01101100 01100101 01100100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)U n s k i l l e d |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0055 006E 0073 006B 0069 006C 006C 0065 0064 |
| 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)558085777578787170 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Familiar 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
