unpropitious

adj

"unpropitious" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“unpropitious” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Not propitious; unfavourable, untimely.

Corpus desk

Index EN-unpropitious · unpropitious · English

unpropitious · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "U" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for unpropitious
PropertyValue
Headwordunpropitious
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “unpropitious” in English

unpropitiousranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

unpropitious is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Not propitious; unfavourable, untimely.".

unpropitious doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From un- + propitious. The correct English form is unpropitious, spelled U-N-P-R-O-P-I-T-I-O-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Not propitious; unfavourable, untimely.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how unpropitious appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. 'Tvvas vvhen the Dog-ſtar's unpropitious ray / Smote ev'ry brain, and vvither'd ev'ry Bay; / Sick vvas the Sun, the Ovvl forſook his bovv'r, / The moon-ſtruck Prophet felt the madding hour: […]
  2. [I]t was there that he had hoped to have found peace and rest from the past turmoils of life, in that enchanting spot, in which he might have desired to have ended his days, had not Fate, ever unpropitious to him, chased him from it.

Etymology

From un- + propitious.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "unpropitious"?
"unpropitious" is spelled U-N-P-R-O-P-I-T-I-O-U-S.
What does "unpropitious" mean?
As an adjective, "unpropitious" means: Not propitious; unfavourable, untimely.
What is the origin of the word "unpropitious"?
From un- + propitious. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list