undisciplined
Britishadjective
Explanation
Undisciplined means uncontrolled or disorderly. An undisciplined bunch of dogs is nearly impossible to walk down the sidewalk together: they all want to run in different directions, chase squirrels, and bark wildly. When you take the word disciplined, "showing control or order," and add un-, or "not," to it, you get undisciplined. This is a great way to describe an out-of-control classroom, an athlete whose explosive anger gets her kicked off the field, or someone who can't manage his own money well, spending an entire paycheck all in one place.
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.
“His mind was, from what I could see, largely undisciplined, which is how he could make these connections so unexpectedly and usefully, but not always usefully,” Crocker said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
Scattered and undisciplined, it’s never clear which way he will go.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2025
They insist that incidents targeting Alawites are not a matter of official policy but the fault of undisciplined individuals or factions, and that the interim government would punish perpetrators.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2025
The problem is that Ronan is also forging her compelling warts-and-all portrait of obliteration and recovery in another type of gale storm, that of undisciplined filmmaking at odds with the patient harvesting of characterization.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2024
In South Carolina the vast, undisciplined army could find another excuse for its excesses beyond the slogan, “This is War, and War is Hell.”
From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt
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.
