unregulated
Britishadjective
Explanation
Whether it’s an economy, the fishing industry, or your cash flow, something that’s unregulated knows no bounds — there are no rules or restrictions in place. When you break the word unregulated down, it’s easy to figure out what it means. The prefix un- reverses an action, so here it means “not.” Then you have regulated, which describes something that has rules or people who check that things are working properly. So if something is unregulated, there are no rules or people making sure everything is right, like an unregulated restaurant that the board of health doesn't know about.
Vocabulary lists containing unregulated
100 SAT Words Beginning with "U"
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Mexikid
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Articles on Overfishing
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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.
His unregulated "cleavage-sparing" mastectomies meant the disease returned in many of his patients.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
Loosely regulated or unregulated products, including injectable peptides, can spread quickly through communities on Reddit, TikTok and other platforms.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026
"It was an unregulated facility; it had faced administrative proceedings and fines since 2019, and was a repeat offender," the official, Jose Bravo, said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 12, 2026
“We’ve been living in a pretty unregulated world as it relates to AI, and it could pressure them to start thinking about safety faster,” Martin said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
Everyone had seen what the future looked like if time travelers were allowed to muck about in history unregulated and unchecked.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
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.
