unassuming
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unassuming
Explanation
The word unassuming means modest, lacking in arrogance, pleasant, or polite. You'll find that some of the most unassuming people are actually the most interesting and powerful of all. They're just decent enough not to display it all the time. When you assume, you draw conclusions that you shouldn't. If you're unassuming, you don't make that mistake. Even though he was a rock star, I found Jason to be unassuming and delightful. He treated everyone like a friend. It's the height of irony that the real Wizard of Oz turns out to be an unassuming country gentleman, when the image he projected was of fearsome, raw, tyrannical power.
Vocabulary lists containing unassuming
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
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Words for the High School Graduate
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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.
Unassuming on its surface, that negative is at once a sophisticated industrial product and the source of nearly a century of dreams, joy, terror, fantasy.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 10, 2026
Unassuming, that's how the big love gets you.
From Salon • Dec. 26, 2022
Unassuming from the sidewalk, the store occupies a sparse space with a few record racks, a couch and a pair of fridge-size Klipsch speaker cabinets.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2022
Unassuming and unremarkable, “Green Book” clearly wasn’t the most important or groundbreaking movie of 2018.
From Washington Post • Feb. 28, 2019
Unassuming in his manner, he seemed more eager to receive knowledge than to talk about himself and his work.
From Life Immovable First Part by Phoutrides, Aristides E. (Aristides Evangelus)
Definitions 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.
