unidentified
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
If something is unidentified, it's mysterious or unknown, whether it's an unidentified flying object or an unidentified fruit that turns up in your grocery cart. Being unidentified means having an unknown identity, from a Latin root meaning "sameness." If you can't determine the identity of a person, like the victim of a crime or a new student at school, they're unidentified. And if your dog brings something disgusting inside, but you can't figure out what on earth it is, just call it an unidentified object and toss it in the garbage!
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.
In fact, an analysis that Lilly previously conducted found that adding vitamin B-12 to compounded Zepbound created a “previously unidentified impurity.”
From MarketWatch • Jul. 7, 2026
He will begin his visit at the cemetery, where unidentified migrants are buried in numbered graves.
From Barron's • Jul. 4, 2026
So far 100% of identified objects haven’t been alien spacecraft, yet people like Steven Spielberg treat the simple fact of unidentified sightings as proof not only of alien visitation, but of government conspiracies.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 26, 2026
Lamberth called Strike 3 a “copyright troll” and threw out its lawsuit against an unidentified internet user for having treated his court “not as a citadel of justice, but as an ATM.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 18, 2026
The husband was a small, timid man, sick with pneumonia caused by an unidentified microbe, and with only limited command of the English language.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
