What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Modesty vs Shamelessness - What's the difference?

modesty | shamelessness |

As nouns the difference between modesty and shamelessness

is that modesty is the quality of being modest; having a limited and not overly high opinion of oneself and one's abilities while shamelessness is (uncountable) the state or characteristic of being shameless.

modesty

English

Noun

(wikipedia modesty) (en-noun)
  • The quality of being modest; having a limited and not overly high opinion of oneself and one's abilities.
  • *
  • *:At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy?; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.
  • Moderate behaviour; reserve.
  • (lb) Pudency, prudish avoidance of sexual explicitness.

    • Derived terms

    * false modesty

    Related terms

    * modestly

    Antonyms

    * immodesty * extravagance * impudence

    shamelessness

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The state or characteristic of being shameless.
  • * 1853 , (Charles Kingsley), Hypatia , ch. 7:
    • [H]e added to all his other shamelessness this, that he offered the patriarch a large sum of money to buy a bishopric of him.
  • * 1914 , (Joseph Conrad), The Arrow of Gold , ch. 1:
    • "For instance as to her shamelessness . She was always ready to run half naked about the hills. . . ."
  • * 1919 , (Mary Roberts Rinehart), Dangerous Days , ch. 50:
    • She was quite honest with herself; she knew that she was watching for Clay, and she had a magnificent shamelessness in her quest.
  • (countable, rare) An utterance or action which is shameless.
  • * 1872 May 18, "The Womens Rights' Convention in New York," The Spectator , Volume 45, p. 624:
    • Shoals of letters are published every week from all parts of the Union telling stories of the unhappiness produced by marriage, sometimes mere bursts of ill-temper, often cynical shamelessnesses , occasionally stories of deep pathos.
  • * 1963 , (James Joyce) and David Hayman, A First-Draft Version of Finnegans Wake (2002 edition), ISBN 9781893311268, p. 109:
    • He was able to write in the gloom of his bottle only because of his noseglow nose's glow as it slid over the paper and while he scribbled & scratched nameless shamelessnesses about ethers everybody ever he met. . . .
  • * 2006 , Judith Weingarten, The Chronicle of Zenobia , ISBN 9781843862192, p. 104:
    • He asked of course after Taimsa, who was still dallying in shamelessnesses at Antioch.

    Synonyms

    * (state or characteristic of being shameless) immodesty, unself-consciousness