unrealized

[ uhn-ree-uh-lahyzd ]

adjective

1. not made real or actual; not resulting in accomplishment, as a task or aim:

   unrealized ambitions.

2. not known or suspected:

   unrealized talent.

unrealized

/ ʌnˈrɪəˌlaɪzd /

adjective

1. (of an ambition, hope, goal, etc) not attained or brought to fruition

Word History and Origins

Origin of unrealized¹

First recorded in 1765–75; un- ¹ + realize ( def ) + -ed ²( def )

Example Sentences

Yet even today, racial and ethnic equality remains unrealized, and racial entitlement remains a potent force.

From Time

This tax is supposed to give the government one last chance to get a piece of all those unrealized gains and other assets the wealthiest Americans accumulate over their lifetimes.

From ProPublica

Many titans of the 21st century sit on mountains of what are known as unrealized gains, the total size of which fluctuates each day as stock prices rise and fall.

From ProPublica

The country’s distinct lack of greatness, the argument goes, is not a matter of unrealized ideals.

From Washington Post

Southern California, of course, fascinates as we wait and wait for it to spice the playoff with West Coast flavor and as it deals with what Ryan Kartje of the Los Angeles Times described as “an ever-lingering sense of unrealized potential.”

From Washington Post

With its extensive coastlines, Iran has the potential to promote this kind tourism but it is, to say the least, unrealized.

From The Daily Beast

It was a promise unrealized until 2012, when construction finally began.

From The Daily Beast

That was at least the pitch, which went mostly unrealized, according to Gezari.

From The Daily Beast

Maugham once confided to Christopher Isherwood his unrealized wish, when he turned seventy, to return to India and study Shankara.

From The Daily Beast

When Susan Lucci earned her first Emmy after 18 unrealized nominations, I stood and cheered.

From The Daily Beast

But the scheme has gone, these sixty years, to the cloudy nether-world of glorious dreams unrealized.

From Project Gutenberg

Once, their aim appeared to be a noble possibility, struggling still and unrealized, but unrefuted.

From Project Gutenberg

We cannot, of course, be content with an unrealized unity of the Church.

From Project Gutenberg

But the way in which they received these last tossed pebbles of metaphor showed him unrealized profundities.

From Project Gutenberg

At this moment, wealth seemed within my grasp, and in the next I might be mourning over or cursing my unrealized hopes.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• innate
• instinctive
• latent
• lost
• repressed
• subliminal
• suppressed