- Today's Word
Unprepossessing
un-pree-puh-ZESS-ing
Definition
(adjective) Not attractive or impressive in appearance.
Example
Though unprepossessing at first glance, the restaurant had incredible food.
Fun Fact
Despite its long-winded look, unprepossessing is often used for things that don’t stand out at first—but might surprise you later. It’s frequently used in restaurant reviews, character descriptions, or travel writing, where something modest turns out to be memorable. The irony? The word itself isn’t very prepossessing—but its specificity gives it staying power.
(verb) To correct, remedy, or set right a wrongdoing or unfair situation.
The company offered refunds to redress the inconvenience caused by the unexpected outage.
Redress comes from Old French redrecier, meaning “to straighten or put upright again.” Over time, the word came to describe correcting not only physical things but unfair situations, injustices, and harms that require restoration or repair.