Attested 1650, fromLatinuncia(“a twelfth part, ounce, inch”).

uncial (comparativemoreuncial,superlativemostuncial)

1. (rare) Of or relating to anounce, or aninch, especially to letters printed an inch high.

Attested 1712, fromLate Latinunciales(“uncials”),uncialeslitterae(“uncial letters”) (Jerome), plural ofuncialis(“pertaining to one twelfth part, ounce, or inch”), fromuncia(“one twelfth part, ounce, inch”). The literal meaning is unclear: some references indicate "inch-high letters", but see “Uncial script” in Wikipedia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌn.si.əl/,^[1]/ˈʌn.ʃi.əl/,/ˈʌn.ʃəl/^[1][2]

• Audio(Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation:un‧ci‧al,un‧cial

EnglishWikipedia has an article on:

uncial

Wikipedia

uncial (notcomparable)

1. Of or relating to amajuscule style ofwriting withunjoined,roundedletters, originally used in the 4th–9th centuries.
   • 1886 October –1887 January,H[enry] Rider Haggard,She: A History of Adventure, London:Longmans, Green, and Co., published1887,→OCLC:

     This, also written in black letter, we found inscribed on a second parchment that was in the coffer, apparently somewhat older in date than that on which was inscribed the mediæval Latin translation of theuncial Greek of which I shall speak presently.

uncial (pluraluncials)

1. Astyle ofwriting using uncial letters.
2. Aletter in this style.
3. Amanuscript in this style.

• semi-uncial,half-uncial

• uncia
• ounce
• inch

• Alcuin,Lucian,Lucina

Borrowed fromLatinuncialis.

uncial m orn (feminine singularuncială,masculine pluralunciali,feminine/neuter pluralunciale)

1. uncial

• IPA^(key): /unˈθjal/[ũn̟ˈθjal](Spain,Equatorial Guinea)
• IPA^(key): /unˈsjal/[ũnˈsjal](Latin America,Philippines)
• Rhymes:-al
• Syllabification:un‧cial

uncial m orf (masculine and feminine pluralunciales)

1. uncial

uncial f (pluralunciales)

1. uncial

• “uncial”, inDiccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1,Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish:Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

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