Meaning & use
unthankful
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivecomparabledisapproving
Not showing or feeling gratitude for kindness or help received.
Grammar: Describes a person or an attitude: an unthankful guest, or he seemed unthankful.
Patterns
- unthankful for something
- unthankful to someone
The unthankful guest left without a word of appreciation.
It felt unthankful to complain after they had offered us a free room.
He was unthankful for everything his neighbors had done.
Common combinations
- unthankful child
- The unthankful child ignored the gift.
- unthankful heart
- An unthankful heart sees only what is missing.
- unthankful for
- She was never unthankful for their help.
- seem unthankful
- I do not want to seem unthankful, but this is not what I ordered.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ungrateful
- Ungrateful is the standard modern word, whereas unthankful sounds older and more biblical.
- thankless
- Thankless is usually about a task that brings no thanks, not about a person who gives none.
- ungracious
- Ungracious points to rude or discourteous manner, not necessarily to missing gratitude.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: unthankful or thankless?
unthankful vs thankless
A thankless job gets no thanks from others, whereas an unthankful person is the one who fails to thank.
Practice
Which word would a modern speaker most commonly use for someone who never thanks the people who help them?
Choose one answer.
Ungrateful is the standard modern equivalent of unthankful. The other options are unrelated adjectives starting with un-.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “unthankful”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.