unspoken

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Germanic *un-

Proto-West Germanic *un-

Old English un-

Middle English un-

English un-

English spoken

English unspoken

From un- + spoken.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌnˈspoʊkən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

unspoken (not comparable)

1. (sometimes postpositive) Not spoken; not said.
2. (sometimes postpositive) Not formally articulated or stated; implicit or understood.

   The unspoken rule is to start a new pot of coffee when it is empty.

   • 1973 December 22, Bill, “Merry Christmas, with Love”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 27, page 7:

     I don't think we could ever have a good parent-son relationship as long as there is something as important as this that I'm hiding from you, and you (probably) are wondering about vaguely, but everything remains on a silent unspoken level.

   • 2013, Tina Marie Lees, Me‎^[1]:

     To melt with the sight of a smile that divulges the words unspoken.

Synonyms

• (not spoken): unsaid; unmouthed (rare, literary), untongued (rare, literary)
• (not formally stated): unacknowledged
• unwritten
• implicit

Derived terms

• unspoken rizz
• unspoken rule
• unspoken water

Translations

not spoken; not said

• Bulgarian: неизказан (bg) (neizkazan)
• Czech: nevyřčený m
• Danish: usagt
• Finnish: sanomaton (fi)
• French: non-dit (fr)
• German: ungesagt
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ἄρρητος (árrhētos)

• Hindi: अनकहा (hi) (ankahā)
• Japanese: 無言の (ja) (mugon no), 暗黙の (ja) (ammoku no)
• Latin: indictus
• Russian: невы́сказанный (ru) (nevýskazannyj), невы́раженный (ru) (nevýražennyj)
• Telugu: చెప్పని (ceppani)

not formally articulated or stated

• Bulgarian: неписан (bg) (nepisan), негласен (bg) (neglasen)
• Czech: nepsaný (cs) m
• Finnish: julkilausumaton, kirjoittamaton (fi)
• French: tacite (fr)
• Latin: indictus
• Russian: непи́саный (ru) (nepísanyj), негла́сный (ru) (neglásnyj)

Verb

unspoken

1. past participle of unspeak

Anagrams

• neopunks