unread
Americanadjective
-
not read, as a letter or newspaper.
-
lacking in knowledge gained by reading; having read little or nothing.
She was intelligent but unread.
-
having little knowledge of a specific field.
a brilliant chemist unread in biology.
adjective
-
(of a book, newspaper, etc) not yet read
-
(of a person) having read little
-
not versed (in a specified field)
Etymology
Origin of unread
First recorded in 1425–75, unread is from the late Middle English word unred. See un- 1, read 2
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.
Assignments didn’t go unread, unassessed or ungraded because affluent children attended elsewhere.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
More messages, many of which are designed primarily to be read by bots, will stay unread by colleagues.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
I couldn’t read another page without knowing, and those unread pages were calling to me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
And that might have been where this all ended—an unread message sinking to the bottom of my inbox—if not for an email LabCorp sent three weeks later.
From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2026
I felt embarrassed about the box of postcards that were all dead ends, read by Maggie and unread by Fred.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
