Unto

//ˈʌntʊ// conj, prep

conj, prep ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Conjunction
  1. 1
    Up to the time or degree that; until. obsolete, poetic

    "Unto This Last (John Ruskin)"

Preposition
  1. 1
    Up to; indicates a motion towards a thing and then stopping at it. archaic, poetic

    "Sir Gawain rode unto the nearby castle."

  2. 2
    To; indicates an indirect object. archaic, poetic

    "And the Lord said unto Moses […]"

  3. 3
    Down to the last; encompassing even every. archaic, poetic

    "⁠I do but sing because I must, And pipe but as the linnets sing: And unto one her note is gay, ⁠For now her little ones have ranged; ⁠And unto one her note is changed, Because her brood is stol’n away."

Synonyms

All synonyms
'tiltilltountiluntilup to

Example

More examples

"Hope is the last thing that man has to flee unto."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English unto, from Old English *untō, *und tō, equivalent to un- (“against; toward; up to”) + to. Cognate with Old Frisian ont to ("until"; > Saterland Frisian antou (“until”)) (cf. Old Frisian und (“up to; till”), Old Frisian til (“till; to”)), Old Saxon untō, untuo (“until”), Old High German unze, unzi, unza (“until”), Old Norse und (“as far as; up to”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌴 (untē, “until; as long as”).

Related phrases

do unto othersdo unto others as you would have them do unto yougo in untolaw unto oneselflike untorender unto Caesarset fire untosickness unto deathsufficient unto the day is the evil thereofunto itselfunto the ages of agesunto time

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