unincorporated
Americanadjective
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not chartered as a corporation; lacking the powers and immunities of a corporate enterprise.
an unincorporated business.
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not chartered as a self-governing village or city; lacking the tax, police, and other powers conferred by the state on incorporated towns.
an unincorporated hamlet.
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not combined into a single body or unit; not made part of; not included.
Many unincorporated research notes are appended to the text of the book.
adjective
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law lacking corporate status
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not unified or included
Etymology
Origin of unincorporated
First recorded in 1705–15; un- 1 + incorporated
Explanation
If a company is unincorporated, it isn't formally or legally recognized. Your sidewalk lemonade stand, unlike Walmart or Costco, is unincorporated. The adjective unincorporated can be used for something that's not fully combined or mixed into a whole, like unincorporated baking soda in your pancake batter that you need to stir a bit more. But it usually describes a business that hasn't legally registered with the government so that it can be considered a corporation. Unincorporated derives from the Latin incorporare, "unite into one body," with the prefix un- meaning "not."
Vocabulary lists containing unincorporated
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.
The unincorporated area, carved out of the Florida wilderness in the 1950s, mushroomed beginning in the 1990s, cratered during the 2007-10 subprime-mortgage crisis and has been climbing its way back since.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Spanish and English are the official languages of Puerto Rico, which is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
Nearly half of the planned data centers in Texas are set to be built in unincorporated areas, free of city regulations, according to an analysis by the Tribune.
From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2026
The road is a main thoroughfare and marks an unofficial east-west boundary for the unincorporated town of Altadena.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
SABIO, SHALE: It’s an intersection in an unincorporated public neighborhood, Mom.
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
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.
