unwittingly

[ uhn-wit-ing-lee ]

adverb

1. without meaning to; unintentionally:

   Users who visit infected websites could unwittingly download malware that steals information in their computers.

2. through ignorance; through lack of knowledge or awareness:

   A number of women have been unwittingly lured into this scheme by being told they were working on a very important project.

Word History and Origins

Origin of unwittingly¹

unwitting ( def ) + -ly

Example Sentences

In “Philoctetes,” a soldier exiled to an island must deal with agonizing wounds, and in “Women of Trachis,” a wife carries out a plot against her unfaithful husband that unwittingly ends with his fatal poisoning.

From Washington Post

To make things even more complicated, younger people are often asymptomatic, meaning they could unwittingly transmit the virus, “especially during a multigenerational celebratory Thanksgiving meal,” Walensky said.

From Washington Post

Pennsylvania’s Rejection of 372,000 Ballot Applications Bewilders Voters and Strains Election StaffMost rejected applications were deemed duplicates because voters had unwittingly checked a request box during the primary.

From ProPublica

When on-campus housing is close to normal capacity, students often have roommates, shared bathrooms, and other opportunities to unwittingly spread the virus.

From Vox

I was born deaf, and people hearing me speak for the first time sometimes unwittingly attempt to place my “accent” — a faux pas I usually brush aside.

From Ozy

Unwittingly or not, modern feminism is leaving its disabled sisters out of the discussion.

From The Daily Beast

It struck me that Charles has, albeit unwittingly, accelerated the tendency for the bad to drive out the good.

From The Daily Beast

It seems that, in doing away with patriarchal authority, we have also, perhaps unwittingly, killed off all the grown-ups.

From The Daily Beast

Sutherland had unwittingly purchased the paintings from a forger in California on eBay.

From The Daily Beast

At least they satirize entitlement instead of unwittingly enacting (and celebrating) it.

From The Daily Beast

He shrank, as from some one who inflicted pain as a child, unwittingly, to see what the effect would be.

From Project Gutenberg

There is a natural tendency in men of genius to unwittingly return, under new forms, to old ideas.

From Project Gutenberg

Even the Red Cross had unwittingly spread its protection over more than one German agent.

From Project Gutenberg

The question was put unwittingly, but being so put Queeker stammered, and again blushed.

From Project Gutenberg

She had thought no further than to hide her shame, and in doing it she had unwittingly disinherited her own cousin's child.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• accidentally
• unintentionally