unguent
/ˈʌŋɡjuənt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
nonstandard/ʌnd͡ʒ(u)ənt/
unguent noun: any cream containing medicinal ingredients applied to the skin for therapeutic purposes.
Noun
unguent (plural unguents)
- Any cream containing medicinal ingredients applied to the skin for therapeutic purposes.
- "Alas!" said Syntax, "could I pop / Just now, upon a blacksmith's shop, / Whose cooling unguents would avail / To save poor Grizzle's ears and tail!"1809–1812, William Combe, Tour of Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque
- So she put a golden box into his hand, and directed him how to apply the perfumed unguent which it contained, and where to meet her at midnight.a. 1864, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece
Adjective
unguent (not comparable)
- Taking the form of a cream or ointment.
- In vials of ivory and coloured glass / Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes, / Unguent, powdered, or liquid— […]1922 October, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “Part II. A Game of Chess.”, in The Waste Land, 1st book edition, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, published December 1922, →OCLC, page 18
unguent meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Kannada and Sanskrit
unguent in Tamil
- களிம்பு மருந்து
unguent in Urdu
- مرہم
unguent in Kannada
- ತಿಗುರು, ಲೇಪ, ಲೇಪನ ದ್ರವ್ಯ, ಮುಲಾಮು
unguent in Sanskrit
- unguent
- अभ्यङ्ग abhyaṅga
Forms of unguent
| plural | unguents |
|---|---|
| alternative form (archaic) | onguent |
Origin of unguent
Borrowed from Latin unguentum (“ointment”), from unguō (“to smear with ointment”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃engʷ- (“to salve, anoint”). Cognates include Old Prussian anctan, Old High German ancho (German Anke (“butter”)), Welsh ymenyn (“butter”).
Words formed from unguent
Questions about unguent
- What does unguent mean?
- Unguent means any cream containing medicinal ingredients applied to the skin for therapeutic purposes.
- What is unguent in Tamil?
- Unguent in Tamil is களிம்பு மருந்து. See Unguent meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is unguent?
- Unguent can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce unguent?
- Unguent is pronounced /ˈʌŋɡjuənt/.
- What is the plural of unguent?
- The plural of unguent is unguents.
Words near unguent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: unguent (page history and authors); unguent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); unguent (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); unguent (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); अभ्यङ्ग (Sanskrit) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-unguent.ogg.
Cite this entry: “unguent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unguent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.