unselfish
adjective
unselfish is spelled U-N-S-E-L-F-I-S-H: 9 letters. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,703rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, unselfish means “Not selfish” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in unselfish?
| Letters | 9: U-N-S-E-L-F-I-S-H |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 40,703rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is unselfish?
Unselfish appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,703rd 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 unselfish?
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-unselfish.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of unselfish
- more unselfish comparative
- most unselfish superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does unselfish mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Not selfish.
The man was in an unselfish mood that day, so decided to give a £20 note to the next charity he came across.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Unselfish in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense not selfish; selfless; generous; altruistic:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | généreux |
| German | uneigennützig, selbstlos |
| Portuguese | generoso |
| Spanish | altruista, desprendido, generoso |
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 unselfish come from?
From un- + selfish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).