unmet
Americanadjective
-
not responded to adequately; not satisfied or fulfilled, as a need, expectation, challenge, etc..
Migrant health centers could address an important unmet need for health services among farmworkers and their families.
-
(of a minimum amount) not reached.
If the production line is disrupted, the result will be everything from defective products to unmet quotas.
-
not personally or physically encountered.
This is an essay on my longtime, unmet friend, the mystic Thomas Merton.
-
(of a traveler) not greeted or picked up on arrival.
Outside the terminal, pushy taxi drivers were vying to get the few unmet passengers into decrepit taxis.
Etymology
Origin of unmet
First recorded before 1100; un- 1 ( def. ) + met ( def. )
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.
Classes for some 1.6 million public-school students were due to start in early September but have been postponed indefinitely, as teachers regularly take to the streets to protest over unmet demands.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
However, the results point to both a promising therapeutic target and a naturally derived compound that could help researchers address an important unmet need in cardiovascular medicine.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026
Dr Susan Bodie, from Edinburgh Innovations, the university's commercialisation service, said the discovery addressed an "important unmet need in the field of women's health".
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
There is unmet need and commercial opportunity in this disease given that ruxolitinib—the standard of care—has discontinuation rates of 50 to 75% within three years, the analysts add.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Tonight’s visit to Sandy June’s Legendary Frybread Drive-In would go down with nothing but unmet expectations.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
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.
