unwittingly
Americanadverb
-
without meaning to; unintentionally.
Users who visit infected websites could unwittingly download malware that steals information in their computers.
-
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.
Etymology
Origin of unwittingly
Explanation
When you do something unwittingly, you don't do it on purpose. It's completely accidental or unintentional, like when you unwittingly offended the Queen by not curtseying properly. If you know exactly what you're doing, you're not doing it unwittingly; you're doing it intentionally. This adverb comes from unwitting and its Old English root unwitende, "ignorant." Wit means "knowledge," so if you do something unwittingly, you act without knowledge. If you post too much personal information online, you might unwittingly set yourself up to have your identity stolen.
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.
Multiple times throughout the session, one caregiver unwittingly demonstrated this dynamic when his wife kept interrupting the conversation off-screen to say she was going to church even though it was a Saturday afternoon.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 23, 2026
Afterward, Naim, sensing he might have unwittingly set into motion something awful, notices bizarre behavior in the stricken-looking Ryan.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 19, 2026
By putting her name back in the news, Trump unwittingly gave #MeToo another moment to show that, actually, there are still a lot of people who care about stopping sexual violence.
From Salon • May 29, 2026
That, Warsh has argued, has crowded the Fed into markets where it doesn’t belong and unwittingly subsidized federal borrowing.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026
For an awful moment Penelope thought that she might have unwittingly become Lady Constance’s confidante.
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
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.
