modest
MOD-istadjMeaning not boasting about your abilities or achievements
Memory hook MOD-EST: never says he’s the BEST. Kai wins first prize at the science fair but just says, “My friends helped a lot.” He never calls himself the best. He is modest.
Though she had won the state prize, Kai’s sister was too modest to mention it.
In context The scientist was modest about her discovery; in every interview she praised her students and called herself “just the one who wrote it down.”
Similar humble, unassuming, self-effacing, unpretentious
Opposite arrogant, boastful, conceited
From Latin modestus, “keeping due measure, moderate,” from modus (measure).