modesty
Americannoun
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modesties
plural
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the quality of being modest; freedom from vanity, boastfulness, etc.
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regard for decency of behavior, speech, dress, etc.
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simplicity; moderation.
noun
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the quality or condition of being modest
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(modifier) designed to prevent inadvertent exposure of part of the body
a modesty flap
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of modesty
From the Latin word modestia, dating back to 1525–35. See modest, -y 3
Explanation
Modesty is that shy feeling you get when someone brags about how great you are, or when you need to take off your shirt to go swimming and showing skin makes you squirm. If you blush, you’ve got some modesty. Modesty comes from the Latin modestus, which literally translates as “keeping due measure.” Knowing the correct measure of yourself is modesty, and when someone praises you too much, your modesty might kick in and make you want to tell them to be quiet. Modesty also means you keep things decent and not too outrageous, like wearing clothes that hide your skin, or painting your walls beige instead of covering them with glow-in-the-dark diamond wallpaper.
Vocabulary lists containing modesty
"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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Beloved
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Purple Hibiscus
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Van Dyk chronicles these lives with a modesty that runs counter to the script’s potentially melodramatic setup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Eschewing any pretense of modesty, he says the Kennedy decision was a dead letter.
From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2026
"Children grow at different rates and for some eight-year-olds, having some more modesty in swimwear is absolutely appropriate," she said.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026
His approach relies in part on structural modesty.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
True invisibility was impossible, of course: this was mental magic, a kind of fiercely held modesty that could make the spell worker not invisible but simply unnoticed.
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
To make one costume seem like many, women are buying in vast quantities dickies, jabots, fichus, gilets, ruches, berthas, bibs, piccadillies, collets, modesties and ruffs.
From Time Magazine Archive
His conscience vexed him likewise, suggesting that his attitude had not been pure cousinly; and this shamed him, since he was still singularly unspotted from the world, noble modesties and decencies still paramount in him.
From The History of Sir Richard Calmady A Romance by Lucas Malet
This is no time for idle vanities," he said; "it's no time to indulge unreal modesties; and you have none of either if it were.
From The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance by Sir Hall Caine
I hope they cannot blame us, we have usd them With that respect our modesties allowd.
From A Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 2 by A. H. (Arthur Henry) Bullen
And this attraction affected her morally, producing in her modesties, reticencies of speech, even of thought, and prickings of unflattering self-criticism unknown to her heretofore.
From The History of Sir Richard Calmady A Romance by Lucas Malet
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
