unripe
Americanadjective
-
not ripe; immature; not fully developed.
unripe fruit.
-
too early; premature.
adjective
-
not fully matured
-
not fully prepared or developed; not ready
-
obsolete premature or untimely
Other Word Forms
- unripely adverb
- unripeness noun
Etymology
Origin of unripe
before 1000; Middle English unrype, Old English unrīpe. See un- 1, ripe
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.
Tomatoes, for example, grow in clusters, which means a robot must carefully select ripe fruit while leaving unripe ones untouched.
From Science Daily • Mar. 18, 2026
On a hot morning in mid-July at the community farm, a patch of lush green ringed by high-rise apartments, Oh inspected his bananas’ progress: still unripe but noticeably fatter.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 31, 2024
Mendel observed the way that different physical properties of the pea plants were inherited: pod shape, seed shape, seed color, unripe pod color, flower color, stem length and flower placement.
From Salon • Feb. 23, 2023
Owen: Fresh and vibrant on the palate, this shows unripe pear, green apple Jolly Rancher and jalapeño pepper.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 15, 2022
It is the color of an unripe raspberry, and it weighs about as much as a pair of blue jeans.
From "Chasing Vermeer" by Blue Balliett
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.
