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unwelcome

UK/ʌnˈwɛlkəm/US/ʌnˈwɛlkəm/
adjectiveB2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,486 of 15,258neutral

Unwelcome means not wanted here. An unwelcome guest, unwelcome news, made to feel unwelcome.

It covers people, news and attention. Unwelcome attention is the standard formula in complaints and in policy about harassment, and it is deliberately about the recipient's experience rather than the intention. Made to feel unwelcome is a serious phrase in that context. Note that unwelcome is Middle English and unchanged, built from welcome, which is literally a well-comer.

Definitions of unwelcome

  1. 1adjectiveunwelcomeNot wanted here.B2

    “The neighbours made it clear that we were unwelcome at their party.”

unwelcome is a quality of being unwanted.

Where it comes from

Middle English unwelcome is un- plus welcome, and welcome itself is from Old English wilcuma, a pleasing guest — literally a wished-for comer.

  1. Middle English

    unwelcome

  2. English, today

    unwelcome

From Middle English unwelcome, unwelcum; equivalent to un- + welcome.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

Practise this word

unwelcome in the wild

  • Someone who goes out of their way to tell possibly unwelcome truths extends honesty into the region of candor or frankness.

    Honesty

  • Sexual misconduct is misconduct of a sexual nature that exists on a spectrum that may include a broad range of sexual behaviors considered unwelcome.

    Sexual misconduct

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • welcome