unto

un·toUK /ˈʌntʊ/obsolete

unto is spelled U-N-T-O: 4 letters and 2 syllables (un·to). It appears 9.1 times per million words in written English, the 7,553rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a conjunction, unto means “Up to the time or degree that; until” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in unto?

Letters	4: U-N-T-O
Syllables	2: un·to
In writing	9.1 times per million words; the 7,553rd 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 unto?

Unto appears 9.1 times per million words in written English, the 7,553rd most frequent word form in the list.

unto0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce unto?

UK /ˈʌntʊ/
UK /-tuː/
UK /-tə/

Unto has 2 syllables, split un·to in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-unto.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What does unto mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

conjunction

1
obsoleteUp to the time or degree that; until.
Unto This Last (John Ruskin)

preposition

1
archaicUp to; indicates a motion towards a thing and then stopping at it.
Sir Gawain rode unto the nearby castle.
2
archaicTo; indicates an indirect object.
And the Lord said unto Moses […]
3
archaicDown to the last; encompassing even every.
4
archaicUntil a particular time.
faithful unto death

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Unto in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense up to:

Language	Words
French	jusqu'à
German	zu, bis zu

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 unto come from?

Inherited from Middle English unto, from Old English *untō, *und tō, equivalent to un- (“against; toward; up to”) + to. Cognate with Old Frisian ont to ("until"; > Saterland Frisian antou (“until”)) (cf. Old Frisian und (“up to; till”), Old Frisian til (“till; to”)), Old Saxon untō, untuo (“until”), Old High German unze, unzi, unza (“until”), Old Norse und (“as far as; up to”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌴 (untē, “until; as long as”).