unctuous.
Having the nature or properties of an unguent or ointment; greasy, oily.
Meaning & usage
Having the nature or properties of an unguent or ointment; greasy, oily.
Having fat or oil present; fatty, greasy, oily.
Of an aroma or taste, or a beverage (such as coffee or wine) or food (such as gravy, meat, or sauce): having layers of concentrated, velvety flavour; lush, rich.
Of soil: soft and sticky.
Of a person: Complacent, self-satisfied, smug.
Of a person: Profusely polite, especially in an insincere and unpleasant manner.
Where this word comes from
From Late Middle English unctuous [and other forms], borrowed from Medieval Latin ūnctuōsus (“greasy, oily, unctuous”), from Latin ūnctum (“ointment; rich banquet; rich savoury dish”) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; overly’ forming adjectives from nouns). Ūnctum is a noun use of the perfect passive participle of unguō (“to anoint; to smear with oil, to grease or oil”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃engʷ- (“to anoint; to smear”). Cognates * Italian untuoso * Old French onctües, unctueus, unctuose (modern French onctueux) * Portuguese unctuoso * Spanish untuoso
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.