unaffiliated
Britishadjective
Explanation
If someone's not connected to a certain group or organization, they're unaffiliated. If you vote, but you're not registered as a Democrat or a Republican, you're unaffiliated. Not being connected or associated with a specific political party is one way to be unaffiliated. If you don't belong to a particular religious group, you can describe yourself as religiously unaffiliated. The origin of this word is the verb affiliate, "join or be closely connected," and its Latin root affiliatus, the past participle of affiliare, "to adopt a son."
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.
The firm did not specify how people will be asked to apply, but the program will be administered by an independent third party unaffiliated with the company, the district attorney’s office said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Last week, TWG said it would swap in $6.5 billion of unaffiliated assets to help bring the numbers down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
“I do think Paxton needs to define Talarico, and he needs to do it soon,” John Wittman, an unaffiliated Republican consultant and former adviser to Gov. Greg Abbott, said in an interview.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
Negative media coverage nearly ended the event, particularly in 2002, when headlines falsely implicated violence at an unaffiliated after-show party.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
He was unaffiliated with any street gang, and we are confident he was unarmed and innocent of the charges being leveled against him.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
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.
