inconspicuous
adjective
Simple meaning
Not prominent or readily noticeable.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihngkahnspihkwuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪŋˈkɑnspɪkwəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Not prominent or readily noticeable
“He pushed the string through an inconspicuous hole.”
Not prominent nor easily noticeable.
Invisible.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Not prominent or readily noticeable
Used this way, inconspicuous is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“He pushed the string through an inconspicuous hole.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use inconspicuous
- “He pushed the string through an inconspicuous hole.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.