unsophisticated
Americanadjective
-
not sophisticated; simple; artless.
- Synonyms:
- inexperienced, naive, ingenuous
-
without complexity or refinements.
a relatively unsophisticated mechanism.
-
unadulterated; pure; genuine.
adjective
-
lacking experience or worldly wisdom
-
marked by a lack of refinement or complexity
an unsophisticated machine
-
unadulterated or genuine
Other Word Forms
- unsophisticatedly adverb
- unsophisticatedness noun
- unsophistication noun
Etymology
Origin of unsophisticated
First recorded in 1620–30; un- 1 + sophisticated
Vocabulary lists containing unsophisticated
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.
Everything fell: oil prices, the dollar, even gold, because investors were shocked by how unsophisticated and draconian the policy was.
From Salon • Apr. 5, 2026
Colonial-era urban elites in Calcutta, influenced by European tastes, often dismissed jatra as rustic or unsophisticated.
From BBC • Apr. 4, 2026
Critics of the plan argue that the guardrails that limit access to private markets are necessary to protect unsophisticated investors.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 13, 2025
We were unsophisticated regarding the business end of it, and we just loved creating music.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 8, 2025
I had come to the army as an escape from my life—as many men did, I suppose—and though I’d had a complex and rougher childhood than most, I was still virtually unsophisticated.
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
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.
