uncool
Americanadjective
-
not self-assured or relaxed.
He felt very uncool, making a speech to strangers.
-
not sophisticated or worldly-wise.
adjective
-
unsophisticated; unfashionable
-
excitable; tense; not cool
Etymology
Origin of uncool
1955–60; un- 1 + cool (in the slang senses “socially adept”)
Explanation
Uncool means unstylish or not in fashion, like your dad's uncool jeans or the uncool music he likes to blast in the car when he picks you up from school. (How embarrassing!) The colloquial word cool, meaning "fashionable," or denoting approval in general, has been around since the 1930s and 40s, inspired by jazz slang. Uncool, meaning the exact opposite, first appeared in the 1950s as hipster slang, and it's been in use ever since. So if you're disapproving of or unimpressed with something, it's totally cool to go ahead and call it uncool.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It reached tremendous mainstream success—and a reputation for being uncool.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026
When Elvis retook the stage in 1969, he hadn’t performed before a live audience in nine years and he’d gotten a little uncool.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2026
Todd McKinnon might never have become CEO of $16 billion software company Okta if not for an uncool move he made early in his career — and one that goes against the conventional wisdom.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 22, 2025
Lady Beckham achieved dizzying fame in the Spice Girls, so it's hard to believe that at school, she was "that uncool kid" who didn't fit in.
From BBC • Oct. 8, 2025
I thought it was a little uncool for him, but he told me it was a perfectly good backpack and he didn’t care what people might think.
From "The Fourteenth Goldfish" by Jennifer L. Holm
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
