unlearn
Americanverb (used with object)
-
unlearns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
unlearned,
past participle, past
-
unlearnt,
past participle, past
-
unlearning
present participle
-
to forget or lose knowledge of.
-
to discard or put aside certain knowledge as being false or binding.
to unlearn preconceptions.
verb (used without object)
-
unlearns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
unlearned,
past participle, past
-
unlearnt,
past participle, past
-
unlearning
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
unlearnsimple
-
unlearnssimple
-
have unlearnedperfect
-
have unlearntperfect
-
has unlearnedperfect
-
has unlearntperfect
-
am unlearningprogressive
-
are unlearningprogressive
-
is unlearningprogressive
-
have been unlearningperfect progressive
-
has been unlearningperfect progressive
Past
-
unlearnedsimple
-
unlearntsimple
-
had unlearnedperfect
-
had unlearntperfect
-
was unlearningprogressive
-
were unlearningprogressive
-
had been unlearningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of unlearn
First recorded in 1400–50, unlearn is from the late Middle English word unlernen. See un- 2, learn
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“To unlearn certain things is really tricky,” he says at the diner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
"I do think about it deeply, like what did I learn from Sinners? What did I learn from Annie? What did I have to unlearn?," she said.
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2026
As I've grown, I have been actively working to unlearn this inherited behavior.
From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2024
He is still seeking the outer boundaries of his instrument, while everyone else was trying, in some sense, to unlearn that knowledge.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2024
This is so ingrained, that it is almost impossible to unlearn this Western cultural norm.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Not all that trial's lore unlearns Of all the lies that life betrays, Avails, for still desire returns— The last day's folly is to-day's.
From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume I. The Songs of Scotland of the past half century by Charles Rogers
Once the rock-portal is passed, it unlearns all its sprightly grace and trickles disconsolately through the sands, expiring, at last, in the dreary Chott el Rharsa.
From Fountains in the Sand Rambles Among the Oases of Tunisia by Norman Douglas
It is when we come to the modern plays that we find the poet falling back upon conventional and somewhat clumsy methods of exposition, which he only by degrees, though by rapid degrees, unlearns.
From Play-Making A Manual of Craftsmanship by William Archer
He unlearns all his useless modesty, and turns little by little into the “man” or the “graybeard” of Hartmann.
From Thoughts Out of Season (Part II) by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
One peculiar mark of the youth, and even of the whole life of Augustin, is the ease with which he unlearns and breaks off his habits—the sentimental as well as the intellectual.
From Saint Augustin by Vincent O'Sullivan
Mr. Vance has no ill words for the unlearned fundamentalism in which his grandmother raised him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
The South African National Biodiversity Institute, which runs the zoo, denied it, saying it was behaviour learnt from years of circus life that would never be completely unlearned.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2024
This is learned behavior and can be unlearned.
From Seattle Times ● May 20, 2024
“Artists should have unlearned having one platform being their main vehicle,” Columbia’s Flanagan said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
But they affected the unlearned masses worst of all.
From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok
"The Fukushima accident is the result of unlearnt lessons of Chernobyl," Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said.
From Reuters ● Apr. 18, 2011
But, like most of the lessons set before us in this life, I feared it would be a lesson unlearnt.
From Potterism A Tragi-Farcical Tract by Dame Rose Macaulay
There was little disfigurement; the eyes were closed with dignity; the mouth seemed to have unlearnt its coarseness.
From Lady Merton, Colonist by Mrs. Humphry Ward
In fact, the prudential morality, based on motives of health and reputation and success, is a thing that has often to be deliberately unlearnt at a later stage.
From The Child of the Dawn by Arthur Christopher Benson
And experience of this kind will convince the subject of it that a Providence shapes our ends, even although the lesson it teaches may remain unlearnt.
From How to become like Christ by Marcus Dods
When attackers retrained models on dangerous knowledge, capabilities removed by conventional unlearning sprang back to nearly full strength.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Letting go meant unlearning years of habitual behaviour.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2025
An unlearning of this scale begs to be satirized.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2025
That means unlearning the language that perpetuates harm and stereotypes, and being more compassionate and humane across the board.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2025
“Yes. I see that....Well, I thank you, Genry. But my business is unlearning, not learning. And I’d rather not yet learn an art that would change the world entirely.”
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
