Non-u

//nɒnˈjuː// adj, slang

adj, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Not U; not characteristic of the upper classes, particularly regarding language. British, colloquial, dated, not-comparable

    "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], (? [ɡjɛl]), [ɡæl], [ɡɛəl] are U, but many (perhaps most male) U-speakers, like all non-U-speakers, use the pronunciation [ɡəːl]."

Adjective
  1. 1
    not characteristic of the upper classes especially in language use wordnet

Antonyms

All antonyms
U

Example

More examples

"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], (? [ɡjɛl]), [ɡæl], [ɡɛəl] are U, but many (perhaps most male) U-speakers, like all non-U-speakers, use the pronunciation [ɡəːl]."

Etymology

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).

Related phrases

non-U-ness

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.