Meanings
comparative unworldlier · superlative unworldliest
- Exceeding what is typically found in the world; exceptional, transcendent.
- Characterising people who are unconcerned with worldly matters; spiritually minded.
I am an aspiring theological writer-artist, Alien Christian Mystic, unworldly, contemplative.
1982 August 28, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 7, page 181 more example
‘But a good wife—a good unworldly woman—may really help a man, and keep him more independent.’
1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVII, in Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book IISynonyms: otherworldly
- Not belonging to this world; celestial.
This creature from a higher world has not forgotten all that he knew before; he retains his unworldly talents and supreme intelligence.
1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 35Synonyms: otherworldly
- Lacking sophistication.
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveCharacterising people who are unconcerned with worldly matters; spiritually minded.
adjectiveNot belonging to this world; celestial.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivenot concerned with the temporal world or swayed by mundane considerations
adjectivenot wise in the ways of the world
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-
- Englishworldly
- Englishunworldly
Translations
Bulgarian духовен, наивен
- духовен (duhoven)spiritually minded
- наивен (naiven)lacking sophistication
- неопитен (neopiten)lacking sophistication
Dutch wereldvreemd
- wereldvreemdlacking sophistication
German weltfremd
- weltfremdlacking sophistication
Cite this entry
unworldly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unworldly
“unworldly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unworldly. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unworldly,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unworldly.
Source: unworldly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.