Word.ws English Dictionary

un-

UK/ʌn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/an/

un- prefix: not.

Prefix (1)

un-

  1. not
    • un- + educated → uneducated (“not educated”)
    Synonyms:
    a-, an-, dys-, i-, il-, im-, in-, ir-, mal-, non-
  2. lack of
    • un- + conformity → unconformity (“lack of conformity”)
  3. contrary to traditional norms; unconventional
    • un- + conference → unconference

Prefix (2)

un-

  1. the inverse of a specified action
    • un- + dress → undress (“to take one's clothes off”)
    • un- + lock → unlock (“to undo the locking of”)
  2. 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”)
    Synonyms:
    de-, dis-, off-
  3. (rare) intensifying a verb that already suggests opposition or removal
    • un- + loosen → unloosen
    • un- + decipher → undecipher
    Synonyms:
    anti-, in-, non-

Prefix (3)

un-

  1. 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”)
  2. Used to form large numbers as the first in the sequence.
    • un- + decillion (“10³³”) → undecillion (“10³⁶”)
    • un- + vigintillion (“10⁶³”) → unvigintillion (“10⁶⁶”)

un- meaning in Persian

un- in Persian

denoting absence
بیـ, بی
violative of; contrary to
ناـ

Synonyms of un-

4 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of un-

alternative formon-

Origin of un-

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-.

From Middle English on-, from Old English on-, ond-, and- (“against, facing, toward; in return, back, without”), from Proto-West Germanic *anda-, from Proto-Germanic *anda-, *andi- (“against”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énti (“across, forth, forward, ahead”), from *h₂énts (“end, limit, forehead”). In some cases the meaning is influenced by un- (“not”, etymology 1).

Borrowed from Latin ūnus.

Questions about un-

What does un- mean?
Un- means not.
What is un- in Persian?
Un- in Persian is بیـ, بی, ناـ. See Un- meaning in Persian.
What part of speech is un-?
Un- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce un-?
Un- is pronounced /ʌn/ (UK).

Words near un- in the dictionary

  1. UN General Assembly
  2. Un Long
  3. UN Security Council
  4. UN*X
  5. UN*Xes
  6. un-
  7. un-aged
  8. un-aggro
  9. un-American
  10. un-Americanise
  11. un-Americanised

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: un- (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-un-.ogg.

Cite this entry: “un-.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/un-. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.