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Modest: Ever So Humble
When used to modify a sum or amount, or to mean "unpretentious," modest conveys a sense of not being excessive:
Captives received a modest salary of $0.80 per day, working at farms around Sonoma County picking apples, prunes, hops and other crops.
Janet Balicki, The Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat, 8 Dec. 2016The minister of foreign affairs drove up in a modest car and joined our conversation.
Michael Taussig, Vice, 22 June 2016
The adjective humble is often used this way too, as when one speaks of "one's humble abode." Both words can be used in a humorous way that might be seen as self-deprecating.
Like humble, modest adequately describe one who does not boast about one's achievements, thereby avoiding a different kind of excessiveness:
Louisa May Alcott was always modest about her gifts; whatever early dreams of genius she might have nourished had been knocked out of her years before her literary fame arrived.
Barbara L. Packer, The New York Times Book Review, 25 Oct. 1987Soft-spoken and modest in conversation, Knoll would be accomplished enough with his visual-effects credits in movies alone.
Julie Hinds, The Detroit Free Press, 11 Dec. 2016
Synonyms
Examples of modest in a Sentence
John Updike, Harper's, October 2004
You're the hero, so then you have to behave in a certain way—there is a prescription for it. You have to be modest, you have to be forbearing, you have to be deferential, you have to be understanding.
—Philip Roth, American Pastoral, 1997
They own a modest home near the beach.
She enjoyed modest success with her singing career.
He earns a modest income.
We live on a modest budget.
New cars are now available at relatively modest prices.
He has only a modest amount of knowledge on the subject.
It is a book of only modest importance.
She's very modest about her achievements.
Don't be so modest. Your performance was wonderful!
“I'm not a hero. I was just doing my job,” he said in his characteristically modest way.
Oona A. Hathaway, Foreign Affairs, 23 Apr. 2024
By reserving the earnings of those relatively modest endowments only for students pursuing a handful of underserved specialties, other medical schools have an opportunity to affect the physician workforce crisis more directly than Einstein College of Medicine will.
—Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Matthew Guido, STAT, 22 Apr. 2024
There will be modest increases in revenue from ticket sales and donations for the 2024-25 competition year.
—Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 22 Apr. 2024
That was still a fair result for a film that cost a modest $28 million to make.
—Jake Coyle, Quartz, 21 Apr. 2024
The beachfront rooms are perfect for couples or solo travelers who want easy access to the beach or those looking to keep their budget modest.
—Jasmine Grant, Travel + Leisure, 20 Apr. 2024
Lewis, who has an appealing, delicate voice and a modest presence, comes to feel like a background player in her own adventure (perhaps ditching Toto from the script doesn’t help).
—Naveen Kumar, Variety, 18 Apr. 2024
Like his 2013 character study, Still Life, this modest but accomplished third feature again deals with death and dignity.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Apr. 2024
Ada County saw a massive increase in the overall median home price between February and March, skyrocketing by $33,000 to hit $555,000, according to the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service.
Canyon County saw a more modest increase of about $3,500 to about $413,000, according to IMLS data.
—Nick Rosenberger, Idaho Statesman, 17 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'modest.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near modest
Cite this Entry
“Modest.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/modest. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024.
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modest
adjective
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