Make Your Point: UNREMITTING

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > UNREMITTING

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

pronounce UNREMITTING:

un ruh MITT ing

connect this word to others:

Unremitting, literally "not sending back" and meaning "never letting up, never taking a break," is a fantastic word for calling attention to things that just don't quit—whether they strike you as impressive or terrifying.

At the heart of unremitting is the Latin mittere, "to put, to place, to send, to release, to let go."

Mittere also gave us the words admit, permit, and mission, and these fancier terms:

1. To set people free, often from slavery, is to m____mit them.

2. A dismissal, a departure, or permission given to leave is a nunc d_mitt__ (two words).

3. The idea, habit, or process of having everything in place, ready to be used, is mise _n pl___ (three words).

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

When something remits, or goes into remission, it stops or becomes less intense.

So, something unremitting continues on without stopping, and without becoming any less intense.

For example, unremitting laughter goes on and on without getting quieter, and unremitting thirst goes on and on without getting less painful.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "their unremitting efforts;" "Their efforts were unremitting."

Other forms:

The adverb is "unremittingly," as in "They worked unremittingly" and "They were unremittingly hardworking."

how to use it:

Pick the very formal, slightly rare word "unremitting" to call extra attention to things that go on and on without a break, whether your tone is positive ("their unremitting hope") or negative ("their unremitting despair").

Talk about unremitting efforts, processes, and struggles, or about unremitting sensations or emotions, such as stress, pain, excitement, or ambition.

Forces of nature, too, can be unremitting: you might talk about unremitting wind, cold, heat, or humidity.

examples:

"God help us, I thought, should the playhouse catch fire or collapse. We would all be trapped as surely as coneys in a snare... The roar of voices and the smell of closely packed bodies were overpowering and unremitting."
— Gary L. Blackwood, The Shakespeare Stealer, 1998

"The problem [with athletes' autobiographies] is that the key to most athletic success is unremitting practice, sensible eating and early nights. No matter how much your trainer made you laugh when she said that thing about your calves, it’s never going to be funny in print."
— Emma John, The Guardian, 4 October 2014

has this page helped you understand "unremitting"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

study it:

Explain the meaning of "unremitting" without saying "unrelenting" or "unflagging."

try it out:

Think of your least favorite place to be, and fill in the blanks: "I can't deal with the unremitting (something) (at, on, or in) (some place)."

Example: "I can't deal with that unremitting chemical odor in nail salons."

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is Subject Line Matching!

Try matching each capitalized term below with the email subject line that I used to introduce it. For an extra challenge, try recalling what each term means and how the subject line connects to it.

Try these today:

CAGEY: _____________
DECADENT: _____________
DYSPHORIC: _____________
ICARIAN: _____________
SALUTARY: _____________

big dreams, dumb plans
cake or death?
thank you, ouch
that Monday-morning Gregor-Samsa feeling
you gotta be slip-sliiiiidin' away

To see the correct answers, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The precise opposite of UNREMITTING is REMITTING. But a pretty close opposite of UNREMITTING is

A. CONCOMITANT (accompanying, happening together).
B. INTERMITTENT (stopping and starting again and again).
C. NONCOMMITTAL (showing no specific opinion or decision).

2. Amy X. Wang praised the book A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature's Deep Design, saying that in it, "sustained above all the science lessons is the clear note of the book's unremitting love of the universe." By choosing the word "unremitting," she emphasized that the book's love of the universe never _____.

A. dips, fades, or wanes
B. veers from the secular to the spiritual
C. reaches an intellectually unsatisfying conclusion

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > UNREMITTING Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to "Make Your Point" for a daily vocabulary boost.

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > UNREMITTING

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.