undocumented

[ uhn-dok-yuh-men-tid ]

adjective

1. lacking documentation or authentication.
2. lacking proper immigration or working papers: undocumented immigrants.

   an undocumented worker;

   undocumented immigrants.

Sensitive Note

See illegal alien.

Word History and Origins

Origin of undocumented¹

First recorded in 1880–85; un- ¹ + documented ( def )

Example Sentences

While Hogan said stimulus checks for undocumented workers, and the House’s other ­changes, would be a dealbreaker for him, key Senate leaders have not publicly said whether they would accept the changes or not.

From Washington Post

Herrera, 22, became more attuned to injustices around her and wanted to fight for the rights of LGBTQ individuals and undocumented immigrants, some of whom are in her own family.

From Washington Post

Meanwhile, office custodians, restaurant employees and construction workers — many of whom are undocumented — have been put out of work by the economic downturn triggered by state pandemic restrictions.

From Washington Post

If you are undocumented, if you are homeless, you may not have access to that information and you wouldn’t even know.

From MIT Technology Review

James Goddard, the senior programs director at the nonprofit Nebraska Appleseed, said in an interview with The Post that it was “alarming” Ricketts could make undocumented immigrants wait longer for a vaccine.

From Washington Post

Five percent of the U.S. work force is undocumented, which is some 8.1 million people.

From The Daily Beast

The undocumented got their documents and we got at least 11 million more illegal immigrants.

From The Daily Beast

But how exactly does an undocumented immigrant get right with the law without changing his legal status?

From The Daily Beast

Yet the undocumented population remains upwards eleven million.

From The Daily Beast

He promises the undocumented a chance to ‘get right with the law’ but says there will be ‘no free pass’ to citizenship either.

From The Daily Beast

The two specimens of this plate in the national collections are undocumented.

From Project Gutenberg

His idea of generosity was the undocumented and unqualified purchase of a person by payments made in the form of a gift.

From Project Gutenberg

Already that undocumented Magna Charta was manifestly not working upon the lines she had anticipated.

From Project Gutenberg

Surely it is safe here to domicile the restless Doctor, for these ten undocumented years between 1805 and 1815.

From Project Gutenberg