Unread

//ˈʌn.ɹɛd// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An unread email or instant message.

    "You will have fewer 'Unreads' staring at you from your Inbox, and will feel—and be—more productive."

Verb
  1. 1
    To undo the process of reading. transitive

    "That book was terrible! I wish I could unread it."

  2. 2
    To flag (a previously read e-mail or similar message) as not having been read. transitive
Adjective
  1. 1
    Not having been read. not-comparable

    "1700, Charles Hopkins, The Art of Love, (after Ovid’s Ars Amatoria), London: Joseph Wild, “The Muse,” p. 36, At first, perhaps, unread your Note’s return’d, Your Person slighted, and your Passion scorn’d."

  2. 2
    Not having read; uneducated. not-comparable

    "In fortune’s love […] the bold and coward, The wise and fool, the artist and unread, The hard and soft seem all affined and kin: But, in the wind and tempest of her frown, Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan, Puffing at all, winnows the light away;"

Adjective
  1. 1
    not informed through reading wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
barbaricbarbarousbooklessdeceivedfunctionally illiterategothic

Example

More examples

"An undeciphered dream is an unread letter."

Etymology

From un- + read.

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