unseemly
adjective, adverb
unseemly is spelled U-N-S-E-E-M-L-Y: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,187th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, unseemly means “Inconsistent with established standards of good form or taste” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in unseemly?
| Letters | 8: U-N-S-E-E-M-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 43,187th 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 unseemly?
Unseemly appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,187th 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 unseemly?
- US
Unseemly 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-unseemly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of unseemly
- unseemlier comparative
- unseemliest superlative
- unsemely
- more unseemly comparative
- most unseemly superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does unseemly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Inconsistent with established standards of good form or taste.
He was drunk and made some very unseemly comments.
adverb
- 1
In an unseemly manner.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Unseemly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense inconsistent with standards, etc:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | malséant |
| German | unpassend, unangebracht, unschicklich, unziemlich |
| Portuguese | impróprio |
| Spanish | inapropiado, extemporal, extemporáneo, impropio, desubicado |
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 unseemly come from?
From Middle English unsemli, probably a partial calque of Old Norse úsǽmiligr (“unseemly”); equivalent to un- + seemly. Cognate with Icelandic ósæmileg (“offensive”), Norwegian usømmelig (“unseemly”), Danish usømmelig (“unseemly”), German unziemlich.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).