unostentatious

adjective

un·​os·​ten·​ta·​tious ˌən-ˌä-stən-ˈtā-shəs How to pronounce unostentatious (audio)
: not excessively or pretentiously showy or flamboyant : quiet and restrained in taste : not ostentatious
a large but unostentatious house
a simple, unostentatious style
unostentatiously adverb
He lives comfortably but unostentatiously in a large, airy beach house … Joan Goodman
unostentatiousness noun

Examples of unostentatious in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Day and the musicians — guitar, bass, drums, two keyboards and three backing singers, somehow jammed onto the Blue Note’s small stage — were loose but tight like a great jazz/R&B band should be, taking flashy but unostentatious solos and incorporating other songs into her new ones. Jem Aswad, Variety, 7 May 2024 Stretching from 1976 to 2003, this is a story of profound connection and awakening disquiet, which Sullivan directs with his customary unostentatious lucidity. Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2023 With a delectable locavore menu designed by top Argentine chefs Pablo Jesús Rivero and Guido Tassi, Explora founder Pedro Ibáñez followed the same model as at his six other hotels—all of which are unostentatious luxury base camps for exploring remote natural wonders. Travel + Leisure, 12 Apr. 2022 Hayes and his collaborators had been recounting heavy stories about gratitude and grief — the Alabama native and his wife Laney had lost their seventh child at birth in 2018 — but he was also intrigued by the way fans were reacting on social media to his ordinary, unostentatious home life. Jon Freeman, Rolling Stone, 13 Oct. 2021 And what will cause it to be remembered is its intrinsic and inspiring spell of the goodness that is to be found in unostentatious and sincere people. Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2023 Buildings that represent Black history, like slave cabins and colored schoolhouses, are often unostentatious, and instead offer evidence of oppression of Black people by their white counterparts. Ramisa Rob, NBC News, 19 July 2022 Both its unostentatious style, and the fact that the Duchess has worn it previously, suggest simplicity and practicality. Caroline Hallemann, Town & Country, 7 Mar. 2021 There is something so very [peculiar, something so very striking, about even the exterior of the building that the passerby cannot but stop and admire its extreme, unostentatious eccentricity. Merrie Monteagudo, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Sep. 2019

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1739, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of unostentatious was circa 1739

Dictionary Entries Near unostentatious

Cite this Entry

“Unostentatious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unostentatious. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

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