Standard Lemma guide

unclean

adj · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ʌnˈkliːn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -iːn
  • CMU ARPABET: AH0 N K L IY1 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Dirty, soiled or foul.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Not moral or chaste.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective

Meaning 4

soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • dirty unswept sidewalks
  • a child in dirty overalls
  • dirty slums
  • piles of dirty dishes
  • put his dirty feet on the clean sheet
  • wore an unclean shirt
  • mining is a dirty job
  • Cinderella did the dirty work while her sisters preened themselves

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: dirty, soiled

Antonyms: none provided

5

adjective

Meaning 5

having a physical or moral blemish so as to make impure according to dietary or ceremonial laws-Leviticus 11:3

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • unclean meat
  • and the swine...is unclean to you

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: impure

Antonyms: clean

History

Etymology

From Middle English unclene, from Old English unclǣne, equivalent to un- + clean.

Across languages

Translations

78 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: мръсен (mrǎsen) — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Catalan: brut — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Danish: urenlig — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Dutch: onrein — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Estonian: must — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Estonian: räpane — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Finnish: likainen — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Finnish: epäpuhdas — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Gothic: 𐌿𐌽𐌷𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (unhrains) — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Gothic: 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌼𐌼𐍃 (gawamms) — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Ancient Greek: ἀκάθαρτος (akáthartos) — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Irish: neamhghlan — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Latin: impūrus — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Latvian: netīrs — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Manx: neuglen — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Māori: poke — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Māori: paru — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Māori: paruparu — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Māori: maniheko — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Norwegian Bokmål: ureinslig — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Norwegian Bokmål: urenslig — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: ureinsleg — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Pashto: سخا (sxâ) — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Pashto: خيرن (xirën) — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Plautdietsch: orrein — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Polish: nieczysty — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Portuguese: sujo — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Rapa Nui: havahava — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Romanian: murdar — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Russian: нечи́стый (nečístyj) — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Russian: гря́зный (grjáznyj) — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Serbo-Croatian: нѐчист — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Serbo-Croatian: пр̏љав — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Serbo-Croatian: nèčist — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Serbo-Croatian: pȑljav — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Sundanese: lolo — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Swedish: smutsig — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Swedish: oren — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Ottoman Turkish: پیس (pis) — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Ottoman Turkish: مردار (murdar) — dirty, soiled or foul
  • Bulgarian: неморален (nemoralen) — not moral or chaste
  • Catalan: impur — not moral or chaste
  • Maore Comorian: -a peu — not moral or chaste
  • Dutch: onrein — not moral or chaste
  • Estonian: räpane — not moral or chaste
  • Finnish: likainen — not moral or chaste
  • French: impur — not moral or chaste
  • German: unrein — not moral or chaste
  • Ancient Greek: ἀκάθαρτος (akáthartos) — not moral or chaste
  • Latvian: nešķīsts — not moral or chaste
  • Latvian: neķītrs — not moral or chaste
  • Pashto: سخا (sxâ) — not moral or chaste
  • Plautdietsch: orrein — not moral or chaste
  • Polish: nieczysty — not moral or chaste
  • Portuguese: impuro — not moral or chaste
  • Romanian: imoral — not moral or chaste
  • Romanian: necurat — not moral or chaste
  • Russian: амора́льный (amorálʹnyj) — not moral or chaste
  • Russian: непристо́йный (nepristójnyj) — not moral or chaste
  • Russian: гря́зный (grjáznyj) — not moral or chaste
  • Russian: по́шлый (póšlyj) — not moral or chaste
  • Swedish: oren — not moral or chaste
  • Swedish: snuskig — not moral or chaste
  • Bulgarian: нечестив (nečestiv) — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • Maore Comorian: -a ntsama — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • Dutch: onrein — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • Finnish: saastainen — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • Finnish: epäpuhdas — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • French: impur — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • German: unrein — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • German: gemein — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • Ancient Greek: κοινός (koinós) — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • Hebrew: טָמֵא (tamé) — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • Hungarian: tisztátalan — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • Plautdietsch: orrein — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • Polish: nieczysty — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • Swahili: -chafu — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
  • Swahili: najisi — ritually or ceremonially impure or unfit
Real reading context

unclean in complete knowledge articles