uncontrolled
Britishadjective
Explanation
Do your little cousins go running wildly around the house every time they're visiting? Then they're uncontrolled — they aren't being restrained by anyone or anything. Anything uncontrolled isn't kept in check or held back. An uncontrolled scream is intense, because you're not trying to tamp it down. An uncontrolled balloon has blown loose and is flying around with no one holding its string. And scientifically speaking, an uncontrolled study or experiment doesn't use a so-called "control group," which is used for comparison and makes the study more valid.
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 nanoparticles carried messenger RNA that directs cells to produce PTEN, a protein that helps prevent uncontrolled tumor growth.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
The spring unwound in an uncontrolled manner, causing the wrench to be ejected and strike him.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
It was largely successful but resulted in the rocket being grounded after the booster suffered an uncontrolled landing in the Gulf of Mexico.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
The booster fell swiftly back to Earth, uncontrolled, into the Gulf of Mexico.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
A child cannot quarrel with its elders, as I had done; cannot give its furious feelings uncontrolled play, as I had given mine, without experiencing afterwards the pang of remorse and the chill of reaction.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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.
