Meanings
comparative more unprincipled · superlative most unprincipled
- Lacking moral values.
But side by side with it was a baser conspiracy, among the more unprincipled and desperate friends of James, for the assassination of the King.
1890, James Franck Bright, edited by Rivingtons, A History of England, →ISBN, page 8532 more examples
That’s what Joe Biden did. His pardon of his son Hunter was understandable from a paternal perspective (what father wants to see his son in prison?), but it was inexcusably unprincipled.
2025 January 23, David French, “Donald Trump Is Running Riot”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 Jan 2025Early in his career, Trump apprenticed himself to Roy Cohn, an unprincipled lawyer who taught the young Trump how to gain wealth and influence through ruthless bullying, profane braggadocio, opportunistic bigotry, baseless lawsuits, lying, and more lying. Yet as Trump’s “fixer” with politicians, judges and mob bosses, Cohn remained utterly loyal to Trump and his father, Fred.
2025 August 25, Robert Reich, “Why Trump built a staff of incompetent sycophants”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 25 Aug 2025Synonyms: licentious, immoral
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveLacking moral values.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivelacking principles or moral scruples
adjectivehaving little or no integrity
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-
- Englishprinciple
- Englishprincipled
- Englishunprincipled
From un- + principled.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian безпринципен
- безпринципен (bezprincipen)lacking moral values
Danish principløs
- principløslacking moral values
Dutch principeloos, beginselloos
- principelooslacking moral values
- beginsellooslacking moral values
- gewetenlooslacking moral values
French dénué de principes, sans scrupule
- dénué de principeslacking moral values
- sans scrupulelacking moral values
- amorallacking moral values
German gewissenlos, prinzipienlos
- gewissenloslacking moral values
- prinzipienloslacking moral values
- prinzipienfreilacking moral values
Italian senza scrupoli
- senza scrupolilacking moral values
Norwegian Bokmål prinsippløs, prinsipplaus
- prinsippløslacking moral values
- prinsipplauslacking moral values
Polish niegodziwy, bezpodstawny
- niegodziwylacking moral values
- bezpodstawnylacking moral values
Russian беспринци́пный
- беспринци́пный (besprincípnyj)lacking moral values
Spanish sin escrúpulos, inescrupuloso
- sin escrúpuloslacking moral values
- inescrupulosolacking moral values
- ímprobolacking moral values
- de moral relajadalacking moral values
- inmorallacking moral values
- sinvergüenzalacking moral values
Ukrainian безпринци́пний
- безпринци́пний (bezpryncýpnyj)lacking moral values
Cite this entry
unprincipled. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unprincipled
“unprincipled.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unprincipled. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unprincipled,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unprincipled.
Source: unprincipled on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.