unambitious
Britishadjective
Explanation
Someone who is unambitious isn't particularly motivated to achieve some kind of success. Do you prefer lying on the couch to doing extra credit? When it comes to school, you're unambitious. An ambitious person has an obvious interest in succeeding at something. If you're determined to climb Mt. Everest, and you train hard in preparation, you're ambitious. If you're not particularly motivated about that or anything else, you're unambitious. Ambitious comes from the Latin ambitiosus, "eager for public office" or "eager for favor." Add the prefix un-, meaning "not," and you get unambitious.
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.
The German gearbox maker’s implied fourth quarter feels relatively unambitious, they add.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025
That too is considered an achievable and unambitious pledge given recent forecasts already project that figure will hit 36 percent in a decade.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2025
Indeed, the good, cheap, unrespectable, unambitious variety of scare flick has mostly disappeared from the big screen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2025
But critics have attacked the change in stance, with railway consultant William Barter, whose recent clients include the government, calling the new plans "totally unambitious".
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2023
In the end, the group chose to pass a resolution so unambitious that almost everyone in attendance was willing to sign on.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
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.
