unlearn
Americanverb (used with object)
-
unlearns,
present (3rd person singular)
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unlearned,
past participle, past
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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
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unlearnssimple
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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:
I had to unlearn the muscle memory of taking people to a poignant place and then relieving that tension with a punch line.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2025
I've heard women say that it was hard to unlearn it.
From Salon ● Aug. 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
She said: "Playing Bella was one of the greatest joys in my life and I got to unlearn a lot of things in playing her."
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2024
“We aren’t supposed to have human emotions. Human emotions are no good on Mars. Please unlearn them.”
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
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
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
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
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
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
“Artists should have unlearned having one platform being their main vehicle,” Columbia’s Flanagan said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
And now here we are in 2023 and it feels like have we unlearned all of that?
From Slate ● Mar. 15, 2023
But they affected the unlearned masses worst of all.
From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok
Despite these changes, some lessons remained unlearnt for years after 9/11.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
"The Fukushima accident is the result of unlearnt lessons of Chernobyl," Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said.
From Reuters ● Apr. 18, 2011
When he came back, if at all, it was, as a rule, grizzled and sunburnt, his native habits all unlearnt, and his native tongue more than half forgotten.
From The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the moors... by George Augustus Sala
Uncle," Harry cried—he hadn't unlearnt to think of him and call him by that fond old name, then—"uncle, I've been conquering myself.
From The Beckoning Hand and Other Stories by Grant Allen
But it is far otherwise with the masters and mistresses of creation; for 'Were man to live coeval with the sun, The patriarch pupil should be learning still, And dying, leave his lessons half unlearnt.'
From The Young Man's Guide by William A. (William Andrus) Alcott
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
They may have difficulty updating their beliefs about what those cues mean and unlearning old associations that no longer apply.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 26, 2025
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
“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.
