Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Ungrateful |
UngratefulAdjective1. Not feeling or showing gratitude; "ungrateful heirs"; "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is / To have a thankless child!"- Shakespeare. 2. Disagreeable; "I will not perform the ungrateful task of comparing cases of failure"- Abraham Lincoln. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "ungrateful" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
Synonyms: UngratefulSynonyms: thankless (adj), unthankful (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: grateful (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Ingratitude | Verb: be ungrateful; Adjective: forget benefits; look a gift horse in the mouth. |
Adjective: ungrateful, unmindful, unthankful; thankless, ingrate,Adjective: ungrateful, unmindful, unthankful; thankless, ingrate, wanting in gratitude, insensible of benefits. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Ungrateful |
| English words defined with "ungrateful": Ingrateful ♦ unappreciatively, Ungrate, ungratefully. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "ungrateful": Concert ♦ Down-trod ♦ Excess ♦ Hydrophobia ♦ looking ♦ retribution ♦ Sinning One's Mercies ♦ Ungrateful Guest, UNGRATEFUL MAN. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "ungrateful": Ungrate. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You are rebellious and ungrateful of my love (Almost Famous; writing credit: Cameron Crowe) Not that I'm ungrateful to providence for bringing you back, but I have to confess - I'm just a little bit curious as to how you managed to wind up with them (Wild Wild West; writing credit: Jim Thomas; John Thomas) Ungrateful little yuppie larva (Ghostbusters II; writing credit: Dan Aykroyd; Harold Ramis) I'll tear his chicken-livered gizzard to pieces! I'll stomp him silly! I'll take this letter knife, and I'll stab that kid right in his ungrateful breastbone (Herbie Rides Again; writing credit: Gordon Buford; Bill Walsh) Brad, don't be ungrateful. (The Rocky Horror Picture Show; writing credit: Richard O'Brien; Jim Sharman) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Ungrateful Land: Roch Carrier Remembers Ste-Justine (1972) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Decimus Magnus Ausonius | Nothing more detestable does the earth produce than an ungrateful man. |
Lao Tse | The ungrateful son is a wart on his father's face; to leave it is a blemish, to cut it off is painful. |
Louis XIV | Every time I appoint someone to a vacant position, I make a hundred unhappy and one ungrateful. |
Publilius Syrus | One ungrateful person, does an injury to all needy people. |
| One ungrateful man does an injury to all who stand in need of aid. | |
Rowe | Great minds, like heaven, are pleased in doing good, though the ungrateful subjects of their favors are barren in return. |
Seneca | It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
John Locke | 1690 | But that magistrates, doing the same thing, may be resisted, hath of late been denied: as if those who had the greatest privileges and advantages by the law, had thereby a power to break those laws, by which alone they were set in a better place than their brethren: whereas their offence is thereby the greater, both as being ungrateful for the greater share they have by the law, and breaking also that trust, which is put into their hands by their brethren. (Second Treatise of Government) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | EXCESS, n. In morals, an indulgence that enforces by appropriate penalties the law of moderation. Hail, high Excess -- especially in wine, To thee in worship do I bend the knee Who preach abstemiousness unto me -- My skull thy pulpit, as my paunch thy shrine. Precept on precept, aye, and line on line, Could ne'er persuade so sweetly to agree With reason as thy touch, exact and free, Upon my forehead and along my spine. At thy command eschewing pleasure's cup, With the hot grape I warm no more my wit; When on thy stool of penitence I sit I'm quite converted, for I can't get up. Ungrateful he who afterward would falter To make new sacrifices at thine altar! |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Ungrateful" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 97.95% of the time. "Ungrateful" is used about 146 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 97.95% | 143 | 26,451 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.05% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 146 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "ungrateful": be ungrateful ♦ ungrateful child ♦ ungrateful person ♦ ungrateful to. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
heart ungrateful | 8 |
henry ungrateful | 4 |
child ungrateful | 3 |
ungrateful | 3 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "ungrateful"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | ondankbaar (thankless, unthankful). (various references) | |
Albanian | jofisnik, i pakëndshëm (awkward, bad, disgustful, disgusting, distasteful, dreary, grating, hard, ill-favored, ill-favoured, nasty, objectionable, repellent, ugly, unattractive, uncongenial, unlovable, unpalatable, unpleasant, unpresentable, unsightly, warm). (various references) | |
Arabic | عاق (baffle, balk, block, cramp, delay, derange, detain, deter, dirty, discourage, disloyal, disturb, embarrass, encumber, estop, handicap, hinder, hobble, hurt, impede, impious, interrupt, penalize, preclude, prevent, retard, set back, shackle, stifle, thankless, thwart, tie up, trammel, trap, undutiful, unthankful), جاحد (disbeliever, perverted, renegade, thankless), الجاحد للجميل, بغيض (abominable, accursed, antipathetic, beastly, blasted, cursed, damned, detestable, distasteful, dreadful, forbidding, frightful, hateful, horrid, impossible, nasty, noxious, objectionable, obnoxious, odious, out of favor, out of favour, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, sticky, unhappy, unlikely, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, unwelcome, villainous). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | неблагодарен (ingrate, plodding, thankless, unthankful), неприятен (annoying, chronic, clammy, disagreeable, displeasing, distasteful, hairy, hideous, hoggish, inconvenient, invidious, irksome, nasty, objectionable, painful, plaguesome, plaguy, repugnant, sour, tiresome, troublesome, ugly, unagreeable, unappetizing, uncongenial, uncool, undesirable, ungracious, unpalatable, unpleasant, untoward, unwelcome, vinegary, wicked), непризнателен (unthankful), противен (abhorrent, abominable, adverse, bastard, contrary, cross, disagreeable, foul, fulsome, ghastly, gross, horrid, loud, mucky, nameless, nasty, noisome, objectionable, obnoxious, odious, offensive, opposing, pestilential, rebarbative, repugnant, repulsive, scarlet, sickening, sickly, sorry, sour, squalid, swinish, ugly, unattractive, unfavorable, unfavourable, ungracious, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, vexatious, vile, villainous). (various references) | |
Chinese | 令人厌恶 (unsavory), 忘恩 義 . (various references) | |
Czech | nevdìèný (invidious, thankless, unthankful). (various references) | |
Danish | utaknemlig (thankless, unthankful). (various references) | |
Dutch | ondankbaar (thankless, unthankful). (various references) | |
Farsi | نمک بحرام , ناسپاس (Deserter, Disloyal), ناخوش ایند (Undesirable, Unpleasant, Unsavory, Unwelcome), حق ناشناس . (various references) | |
Finnish | kiittämätön, epäkiitollinen. (various references) | |
French | ingrat (unattractive, undutiful, unfruitful, ungrateful person, unpleasant, unsatisfying, unthankful). (various references) | |
German | undankbar (ingrate, invidious, thankless, thanklessly, ungraceful, unrewarding, unthankful, unthankfully). (various references) | |
Greek | άχαροσ (clumsy, ill-favored, ill-favoured, joyless, mirthless), αγνώμονασ, αγνωμών (ingrate, thankless), αχάριστοσ (ingrate, thankless, unthankful). (various references) | |
Hebrew | כפיו י (epileptic), כפוי טוב" (ingrate). (various references) | |
Hungarian | hálátlan (barren, ingrate, irksome, meagre, thankless, unthankful). (various references) | |
Icelandic | vanþakklátur (thankless, unthankful). (various references) | |
Italian | ingrato (ingrate, thankless, ungratefully, unthankful). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 人で無し (brute, miscreant, ungrateful fellow), 恩'忘れる (to be ungrateful). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | お"'わすれる (to be ungrateful), ひとでなし (brute, miscreant, ungrateful fellow). (various references) | |
Manx | neuwooisal (thankless), neuvooisal (thankless), meewooisal (unappreciative), meewooisagh. (various references) | |
Norwegian | utakknemlig (thankless, unthankful). (various references) | |
Papiamen | ingrato (ingratitude, thankless, unthankful), desagradesido (thankless, unthankful). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | atefulungray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | ingrato (ingrate, thankless, unthankful). (various references) | |
Romanian | nerecunoscãtor (unthankful), nemulţumitor (unsatisfactory, unsatisfying), ingrat (disagreeable, unpleasing). (various references) | |
Russian | неблагодарный (churlish, ingrate, thankless, unthankful). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | nezahvalan (thankless, unthankful), neisplatljiv. (various references) | |
Spanish | ingrato (ingrate, thankless), desagradecido (ingrate, thankless, ungratefully, unthankful). (various references) | |
Swedish | otacksam (ingrate, thankless, ungrateful to, unrewarding, unthankful). (various references) | |
Turkish | nankör (ingrate, thankless, unthankful), iyilikten anlamaz, hain (betrayer, cattish, catty, deceitful, dingo, disloyal, faithless, false, false-hearted, foul, insidious, Judas, malicious, nefarious, perfidious, rat, Ratter, renegade, scoundrel, scoundrelly, serpent, snaky, traitor, traitorous, treacherous, villain, viperish, viperous, wicked). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | невдячний (churlish, ingrate, thankless, unthankful), непри"мний (acerbic, bad, beastly, brackish, disagreeable, displeased, displeasing, distasteful, grisly, hack, importune, nasty, objectionable, obnoxious, offensive, painful, plaguy, poor, provoking, snooty, tedious, ugly, unfavorable, unfavourable, ungracious, unlovable, unloveable, unlovely, unpleasant, unwelcome). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | vô ơn (thankless), không thú vị (unenjoyable, unpleasing), bạc (hoary, silvery, unthankful), bội nghĩa bạc bẽo. (various references) | |
Welsh | anniolchgar (unthankful). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | acharis, ingrati, ingratis, ingratos, ingratus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "ungrateful": ungratefully, ungratefulness, ungratefulnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Ungrateful" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ungratful, ungreateful, ungreatful, unrestful. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "ungrateful" (pronounced ungrā"tful) |
| 7 | -g r ā" t f u l | grateful. |
| 5 | -ā" t f u l | fateful, hateful. |
| 4 | -t f u l | artful, boastful, deceitful, delightful, disrespectful, distasteful, distrustful, doubtful, eventful, fistful, fitful, forgetful, fretful, frightful, fruitful, hurtful, spiteful, tactful, tasteful, insightful, lustful, mistrustful, neglectful, regretful, resentful, respectful, restful, rightful, thoughtful, uneventful, wasteful, wistful, zestful. |
| 3 | -f u l | apocryphal, awful, baffle, baleful, bashful, beautiful, blissful, bountiful, careful, cheerful, colorful, disdainful, disgraceful, doleful, dreadful, duffel, dutiful, faithful, falafel, fanciful, fearful, flavorful, forceful, gainful, gleeful, graceful, harmful, healthful, helpful, hopeful, houseful, sorrowful, soulful, stifle, stressful, successful, suspenseful, tearful, thankful, joyful, kerfuffle, lawful, masterful, meaningful, merciful, mindful, mournful, muffle, needful, painful, panful, peaceful, pitiful, playful, plentiful, powerful, prayerful, purposeful, raffle, remorseful, reshuffle, resourceful, riffle, rifle, rueful, ruffle, scornful, scuffle, shameful, shuffle, sinful, skillful, trifle, triumphal, truffle, truthful, tuneful, unfaithful, unhealthful, unhelpful, unlawful, unsuccessful, untruthful, useful, vengeful, waffle, watchful, willful, wishful, woeful, wonderful, worshipful, wrongful, youthful. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-f-g-l-n-r-t-u-u" | |
-1 letter: fulgurant, fulgurate. | |
-2 letters: flaunter, grateful, unartful, ungulate. | |
-3 letters: engraft, flaneur, flanger, frenula, fulgent, funeral, futural, gaunter, granule, gruntle, languet, neurula, neutral, refutal, tangler, tearful, tegular, tuneful, ungulae, ungular. | |
-4 letters: angler, antler, argent, artful, auteur, earful, eluant, englut, engulf, falter, ferula, flange, flaunt, fluent, fluter, frugal, fungal, furane, future, garnet, gelant, gluten, gurnet, lagune, langue. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-f-g-l-n-r-t-u-u" | |
+2 letters: ungratefully. | |
+4 letters: ungratefulness. | |
+5 letters: ultracentrifuge. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Familiar 7. Quotations: Historic 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
