unfettered
UK/ʌnˈfɛtəd//ˈʌnˈfɛtɚd/
unfettered is the simple past and past participle of unfetter.
Adjective
unfettered (comparative more unfettered, superlative most unfettered)
- Not bound by chains or shackles.
- Near-synonyms: unmanacled, unhandcuffed
- In a corner of the market among the pens for cattle, Barnaby knelt down, and pausing every now and then to pass his hand over his father’s face, or look up to him with a smile, knocked off his irons. When he had seen him spring, a free man, to his feet, and had given vent to the transport of...1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 68, in Barnaby Rudge
- Synonyms:
- fetterless, unshackled, shackleless, unchained, unmanacled, unhandcuffed
- Antonyms:
- fettered
- Not restricted.
- I envy not the beast that takes
His license in the field of time,
Unfetter’d by the sense of crime,
To whom a conscience never wakes; […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXVII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 44 - We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible.1916, Thomas Clarke, Proclamation of the Irish Republic
- Synonyms:
- fetterless, untrammeled, unconstrained, unrestrained, unrestricted, unbridled, unbound, free
- Antonyms:
- fettered
- I envy not the beast that takes
Meaning of unfetter
Verb
unfetter (third-person singular simple present unfetters, present participle unfettering, simple past and past participle unfettered)
Synonyms of unfettered
- fetterless
- unshackled
- shackleless
- unchained
- unmanacled
- unhandcuffed
- untrammeled
- unconstrained
- unrestrained
- unrestricted
Antonyms
Forms of unfettered
| comparative | more unfettered |
|---|---|
| superlative | most unfettered |
Origin of unfettered
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
From un- + fettered.
Words formed from unfettered
Questions about unfettered
- What does unfettered mean?
- Unfettered means not bound by chains or shackles.
- What is unfettered the simple past and past participle of?
- Unfettered is the simple past and past participle of unfetter.
- What part of speech is unfettered?
- Unfettered is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce unfettered?
- Unfettered is pronounced /ʌnˈfɛtəd/ (UK).
Words near unfettered in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: unfettered (page history and authors); unfetter (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-unfettered.ogg, en-au-unfettered.ogg.
Cite this entry: “unfettered.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unfettered. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.