un-
prefixEtymology
From Middle English un-, from Old English un-, from Proto-West Germanic *un-, from Proto-Germanic *un-, from Proto-Indo-European *n̥-. Cognate with Scots un-, on- (“un-”), North Frisian ün-, Saterland Frisian uun-, West Frisian ûn-, on-, Dutch on-, Low German un-, on-, German un-, Danish u-, Swedish o-, Norwegian u-, Icelandic ó-. More distant cognate with Latin in-, Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) (whence English a-, modern Greek α- (a-)) and Sanskrit अ- (a-). Doublet of in- and a-.
Definitions
not
- un- + educated → uneducated (“not educated”)
lack of
- un- + conformity → unconformity (“lack of conformity”)
contrary to traditional norms
contrary to traditional norms; unconventional
- un- + conference → unconference
›+ 5 more definitionsshow fewer
the inverse of a specified action
- un- + dress → undress (“to take one's clothes off”)
- un- + lock → unlock (“to undo the locking of”)
- Un-cry these tears I cried so many nights Un-break my heart
deprive of, release from, free from, remove from, extract from
- un- + cage → uncage (“to release from a cage”)
- un- + tangle → untangle (“to remove the tangling of”)
intensifying a verb that already suggests opposition or removal
- un- + loosen → unloosen
- un- + decipher → undecipher
- un- + thaw → unthaw
Used for the digit one to form systematic element names of elements whose existence has…
Used for the digit one to form systematic element names of elements whose existence has been predicted, and which have not yet been given a trivial name.
- un- (“1”) + bi- (“2”) + un- (“1”) + -ium (element suffix) → unbiunium (“element 121”)
Used to form large numbers as the first in the sequence.
- un- + decillion (“10³³”) → undecillion (“10³⁶”)
- un- + vigintillion (“10⁶³”) → unvigintillion (“10⁶⁶”)
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for un-. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA