Unwed

adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who is not married; a bachelor or a spinster.

    "Should unweds living together receive the same social benefits as married couples?"

Verb
  1. 1
    To annul the marriage of. transitive

    "At last it was determined to unwed the unhappy pair, during the arrangements for which the husband was arrested and put into jail for six months for rioting."

  2. 2
    To separate. figuratively, transitive

    "A singer must be a fool indeed if you do not hear through Sullivan's notes the exact language of any song. Take, for example, the well-known Sentry song in Iolanthe and attempt to unwed the wit of the air from the wit of the thought and words; […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Not married. not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    of someone who has not been married wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
unmarriedcelibateeligiblemaidenmaidenlysingle

Example

More examples

"Unwed couples deserve visitation rights just as much as married ones do."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From un- (not) + wed.

Etymology 2

From un- (to reverse) + wed.

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