Word.ws English Dictionary

non-U

/nɒnˈjuː/US/ˈnɑnˈju/

non-U adjective: not U; not characteristic of the upper classes, particularly regarding language.

Adjective

non-U (not comparable)

  1. (UK, colloquial, dated) Not U; not characteristic of the upper classes, particularly regarding language.
    • I may also note here that the U-demarcation is of two types: – (1) a certain U-feature has a different, non-U counterpart as non-U wealthy / U rich; (2) a certain feature is confined to U-speech and it has a counterpart which is not confined to non-U speech e.g. the pronunciations of girl as [ɡɛl]...1954, Alan S[trode] C[ampbell] Ross, “Linguistic Class-indicators in Present-day English”, in Neuphilologische Mitteilungen [Modern Language Communications], volume 55, number 1, Helsinki: Modern...
    • Pudding when used to mean all sweet dishes at the end of a meal is Non-U; the U expression is sweet. Similarly greens for vegetables is a Non-U expression.1956 February 25, Thought, volume 8, Delhi: Siddhartha Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16, column 1
    Antonyms:
    U

Examples of non-U in a sentence

  • A wedding is a great occasion for u/non-u indicators.1968 August 21, “U and Non-U Today: 2. Actions”, in New Society: The Social Science Weekly, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 267, column 2:
  • The U/non-U priority rule will be in accord with servant master-type rules if masters are U and servants are non-U, for then the rules support each other.1976, J[an] T. J. Srzednicki, “Structure of Beliefs and Group Structure”, in Elements of Social and Political Philosophy (Melbourne...
  • Was it all a huge joke … this U and non-U business?1977, Beverley Nichols, “Toilet-training”, in The Spectator: A Weekly Review of Politics, Literature, Theology, and Art, volume 238...
  • The concept of U (for upper-class British usage, as opposed to non-U, or everything else) was introduced by Alan S.1992, John Algeo, “Sociolinguistic Attitudes and Issues in Contemporary Britain”, in Tim W[illiam] Machan, Charles T. Scott, editors...

Antonyms of non-U

Origin of non-U

From non- + U (“characteristic of the upper classes”), coined by British linguist Alan S. C. Ross (1907–1980) in an article in 1954, and popularized by the English journalist and writer Nancy Mitford (1904–1973).

Words formed from non-U

Words that rhyme with non-U

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about non-U

What does non-U mean?
Non-U means not U; not characteristic of the upper classes, particularly regarding language.
How do you use non-U in a sentence?
A wedding is a great occasion for u/non-u indicators.
What part of speech is non-U?
Non-U is an adjective.
How do you pronounce non-U?
Non-U is pronounced /nɒnˈjuː/ (UK).

Words near non-U in the dictionary

  1. non-trivial
  2. non-tropical
  3. non-tropical sprue
  4. non-Trumper
  5. non-Trumpers
  6. non-U
  7. non-U-ness
  8. non-ubiquitous
  9. non-ultrasonographic
  10. non-understandability
  11. non-uniform

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: non-U (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “non-U.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/non-u. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.