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.
Some 220,000 people have been evacuated in France and more than 100,000 in Spain, where fires are burning "uncontrolled" west of Madrid.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 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
Grimberg said that uncontrolled growth “is essentially cancer.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026
What happens in a cell to change its orderly multiplication into the wild and uncontrolled proliferation of cancer?
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
