unworldly

U1N1W4O1R1L1D2L1Y4

adjective

Exceeding what is typically found in the world; exceptional, transcendent.

Opposite
RareScrabble 16

Meanings

adjectiveunworldly (comparative unworldlier, superlative unworldliest)

comparative unworldlier · superlative unworldliest

  1. Exceeding what is typically found in the world; exceptional, transcendent.
  2. 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 18
    1 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 II

    Synonyms: otherworldly

  3. 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 35

    Synonyms: otherworldly

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

Opposite

adjectivenot wise in the ways of the world

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*né
  2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
  3. Proto-Germanic*un-
  4. Proto-West Germanic*un-
  5. Old Englishun-
  6. Middle Englishun-
  7. Englishun-
  8. Englishworldly
  9. Englishunworldly

From un- + worldly.

Full word history & related roots →

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
APA

unworldly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unworldly

MLA

“unworldly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unworldly. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unworldly,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unworldly.

Source: unworldly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.