Meanings
comparative more unostentatious · superlative most unostentatious · alternative rare un-ostentatious
- Not ostentatious; simple; unpresuming.
1 more example
But terror had overpowered the scanty remains of a body once so powerful, and sensible they were only suffered to remain in this ancient seat by connivance and from compassion, they did not venture upon taking any step which might be construed into an assertion of their ancient rights, contenting themselves with the secret and obscure exercise of their religious ceremonial, in as unostentatious a manner as was possible.
1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 279
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveexhibiting restrained good taste
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*né
- Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
- Proto-Germanic*un-
- Proto-West Germanic*un-
- Old Englishun-
- Middle Englishun-
- Englishun-
- Englishostentatious
- Englishunostentatious
From un- + ostentatious.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
unostentatious. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unostentatious
“unostentatious.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unostentatious. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unostentatious,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unostentatious.
Source: unostentatious on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.