unpretentious
/ˌʌnpɹəˈtɛnʃəs/adjective
unpretentious is spelled U-N-P-R-E-T-E-N-T-I-O-U-S: 13 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 47,633rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, unpretentious means “Simple, humble, not pretentious, plain” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in unpretentious?
| Letters | 13: U-N-P-R-E-T-E-N-T-I-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 47,633rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is unpretentious?
Unpretentious appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 47,633rd 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).
How do you pronounce unpretentious?
- /ˌʌnpɹəˈtɛnʃəs/
Unpretentious has 4 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-unpretentious.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of unpretentious
- more unpretentious comparative
- most unpretentious superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does unpretentious mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Simple, humble, not pretentious, plain.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Unpretentious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense not pretentious:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | unprätentiös |
| Portuguese | despretensioso |
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 unpretentious come from?
From un- + pretentious.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).