Uneven

//ʌnˈivən// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make uneven. transitive

    "Initially it nestled among the dozens of Indian mounds that unevened the earth near the river until they were leveled to accommodate commerce."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of a surface, not even; covered with raised spots, pits and grooves.
  2. 2
    Not level or smooth.
  3. 3
    Not uniform.

    "I've spent hours on overcrowded trains, and time on ones which were almost empty, because the recovery [from COVID] has been uneven."

  4. 4
    Varying in quality.

    "Even white activists who lacked a thoroughgoing anti-racist consciousness or were uneven in their understanding saw unity in the struggle against all forms of oppression as key."

  5. 5
    Odd. rare
Adjective
  1. 1
    lacking consistency wordnet
  2. 2
    (of a contest or contestants) not fairly matched as opponents wordnet
  3. 3
    not even or uniform as e.g. in shape or texture wordnet
  4. 4
    not divisible by two wordnet
  5. 5
    variable and recurring at irregular intervals wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
irregularmismatchedoddpatchyraggedrough

Example

More examples

"The tamborim lends a very slightly uneven and highly distinctive 16th note groove to samba music."

Etymology

From Middle English uneven, from Old English unefen (“unequal, unlike, dissimilar, diverse, irregular”), equivalent to un- + even. Cognate with Dutch oneven (“unequal, uneven, odd”), German uneben (“uneven, rough, irregular, bumpy”).

Related phrases

uneven bars

More for "uneven"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.