Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
unchildish

unchildish

1 7.9
Acts in a grown-up, serious way
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈtʃaɪldɪʃ/
: maduro
  • Unlike her peers, she addressed the issue in an unchildish manner, showing remarkable maturity.

Examples

  • Sometimes Robert doubted that she was listening, but later he heard her repeating the tales in bed, though with unchildish twists: the glass slipper didn't fit, the beast remained a beast.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • She had begun to behave in an unchildish, sad way.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • His unchildish decisions in the meeting surprised everyone, as he usually acted so naïvely.

  • The film's themes were unchildish, exploring complex relationships rather than simplistic adventures.

Synonyms

unchildlike
vsunchildish
1 7.9

Showing behavior or thoughts more like an adult than a child

is the same meaning but uses a different word form

Antonyms

childish
127 2.8

Acting like a child instead of like an adult

immature
106 3.5

Behaving like a child in a way that shows little emotional growth

How Childlike

childish
127 2.8
childlike
28 3.7
unchildish
1 7.9
mature
203 3.3

Surface Forms

unchildish positive

Morphology

unchildish = childish (transparent) = un + child + ish

Formed by prefixing 'un-' to 'childish', yielding a straightforward negation 'not childish'.

Etymology

Unchildish is made of un- + child + -ish, where un- means 'not', child means 'a young person', and -ish means 'like'. So unchildish means 'not childlike' and is used for behaviour that seems more mature or serious than a child.