UNWORLDLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unworldly mean? 

• UNWORLDLY (adjective)
  The adjective UNWORLDLY has 2 senses:

1. not concerned with the temporal world or swayed by mundane considerations

2. not wise in the ways of the world

  Familiarity information: UNWORLDLY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNWORLDLY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not concerned with the temporal world or swayed by mundane considerations

Context example:

was unworldly and did not greatly miss worldly rewards

Similar:

anchoritic; eremitic; eremitical; hermitic; hermitical (characterized by ascetic solitude)

cloistered; cloistral; conventual; monastic; monastical (of communal life sequestered from the world under religious vows)

spiritual; unearthly (concerned with or affecting the spirit or soul)

unmercenary (not mercenary; not influenced by financial gains)

Also:

pious (having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity)

naif; naive (marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience)

Antonym:

worldly (characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not wise in the ways of the world

Synonyms:

unsophisticated; unworldly

Context example:

this helplessly unworldly woman

Similar:

naif; naive (marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience)

 Context examples 

“Your late wife, sir, was a most unworldly, most unhappy, most unfortunate baby,” returned my aunt, shaking her head at him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Other friends told the Marches that they had lost all chance of being remembered in the rich old lady's will, but the unworldly Marches only said...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

So unworldly was he—or so capricious—that he frequently refused his help to the powerful and wealthy where the problem made no appeal to his sympathies, while he would devote weeks of most intense application to the affairs of some humble client whose case presented those strange and dramatic qualities which appealed to his imagination and challenged his ingenuity.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Amy was very much impressed by John's devotion and Meg's dignity, Beth beamed at them from a distance, while Mr. and Mrs. March surveyed the young couple with such tender satisfaction that it was perfectly evident Aunt March was right in calling them as 'unworldly as a pair of babies'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Of course there was a great jubilee, and when the story came everyone read and praised it, though after her father had told her that the language was good, the romance fresh and hearty, and the tragedy quite thrilling, he shook his head, and said in his unworldly way...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)