unearthly
/ʌnˈɝθ.li/adjective
unearthly is an adjective meaning “Not of the earth; nonterrestrial” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled U-N-E-A-R-T-H-L-Y and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 4 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does unearthly mean?
adjective
- 1
Not of the earth; nonterrestrial.
- 2
Preternatural or supernatural.
- 3
Strange, enigmatic, or mysterious.
- 4
Ideal beyond the mundane.
- 5
derogatoryRidiculous, ludicrous, or outrageous.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce unearthly?
- UK /ʌnˈɜːθ.li/
- US /ʌnˈɝθ.li/
Unearthly has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-unearthly.ogg, En-au-unearthly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of unearthly
- unearthlier comparative
- unearthliest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is unearthly?
Unearthly appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,788th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Unearthly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | überirdisch , unheimlich |
| Portuguese | sobrenatural , estranho, bizarro |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does unearthly come from?
From un- + earthly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).