Word.ws English Dictionary

unlearning

unlearning is the present participle and gerund of unlearn.

Meaning of unlearn

Verb

unlearn (third-person singular simple present unlearns, present participle unlearning, simple past and past participle unlearned or unlearnt)

  1. (transitive) To discard the knowledge of.
    • It was another lesson from Fort Hare that I had to unlearn in Johannesburg.1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 80
  2. (transitive) To break a habit.

Noun

unlearning (plural unlearnings)

  1. The process by which something is unlearned.
    • In Latin also James had some unlearning to do.1977, K.M. Elizabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 22

Forms of unlearning

pluralunlearnings

Questions about unlearning

What does unlearning mean?
Unlearning means the process by which something is unlearned.
What is unlearning the present participle and gerund of?
Unlearning is the present participle and gerund of unlearn.
What part of speech is unlearning?
Unlearning is a noun.
What is the plural of unlearning?
The plural of unlearning is unlearnings.

Words near unlearning in the dictionary

  1. unlearned
  2. unlearnedly
  3. unlearnedness
  4. unlearner
  5. unlearners
  6. unlearning
  7. unlearnings
  8. unlearns
  9. unlearnt
  10. unleasable
  11. unleased

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unlearning (page history and authors); unlearn (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.

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