unassisted
Britishadjective
Explanation
If your five-year-old ties his shoes unassisted, your mother might call him "little Einstein." Doing something unassisted means doing it without help. Unassisted is an example of a word with two prefixes. The first prefix, un, means the reverse of, and in this case the second prefix, a, means at. The root word sist comes from the Latin word sistere, to stand. So unassisted is another way of saying "without anyone standing by to help."
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.
One widely cited experiment published last year found that high school math students in Turkey improved their practice grades when using ChatGPT, yet saw a 17% performance drop when taking exams unassisted.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026
For the chair stand test, participants completed five unassisted sit-to-stand movements as quickly as possible.
From Science Daily • May 12, 2026
Eleven of 12 infants who received a higher dose of the therapy were able to sit unassisted, speak and be fed orally.
From Salon • Feb. 19, 2025
In his final years, he was unable to move unassisted, required a ventilator to breathe, and lived with chronic heart and respiratory failure.
From BBC • Dec. 16, 2024
Too heavy even to stand unassisted, he could not hold his water, so he always smelled of piss, a stench so sharp that even heavy perfumes could not conceal it.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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.
