UN-

Definition: UN-

UN-

1. An inseparable verbal prefix or particle. It is prefixed: (a) To verbs to express the contrary, and not the simple negative, of the action of the verb to which it is prefixed; as in uncoil, undo, unfold. (b) To nouns to form verbs expressing privation of the thing, quality, or state expressed by the noun, or separation from it; as in unchild, unsex. Sometimes particles and participial adjectives formed with this prefix coincide in form with compounds of the negative prefix un- (see 2d Un-); as in undone (from undo), meaning unfastened, ruined; and undone (from 2d un- and done) meaning not done, not finished. Un- is sometimes used with an intensive force merely; as in unloose.

Adverb

1. Un- is prefixed to nouns to express the absence of, or the contrary of, that which the noun signifies; as, unbelief, unfaith, unhealth, unrest, untruth, and the like.

2. Those which are anomalous, provincial, or, for some other reason, not desirable to be used, and are so indicated; as, unpure for impure, unsatisfaction for dissatisfaction, unexpressible for inexpressible, and the like.

3. Those which have the value of independent words, inasmuch as the simple words are either not used at all, or are rarely, or at least much less frequently, used; as, unavoidable, unconscionable, undeniable, unspeakable, unprecedented, unruly, and the like; or inasmuch as they are used in a different sense from the usual meaning of the primitive, or especially in one of the significations of the latter; as, unaccountable, unalloyed, unbelieving, unpretending, unreserved, and the like; or inasmuch as they are so frequently and familiarly used that they are hardly felt to be of negative origin; as, uncertain, uneven, and the like.

4. Those which have acquired an opposed or contrary, instead of a merely negative, meaning; as, unfriendly, ungraceful, unpalatable, unquiet, and the like; or else an intensive sense more than a prefixed not would express; as, unending, unparalleled, undisciplined, undoubted, unsafe, and the like.

5. To present particles which come from intransitive verbs, or are themselves employed as adjectives, to mark the absence of the activity, disposition, or condition implied by the participle; as, - ---- and the like.

6. To past particles, or to adjectives formed after the analogy of past particles, to indicate the absence of the condition or state expressed by them

7. To adjectives, to denote the absence of the quality designated by the adjective

8. Un- is prefixed to adjectives, or to words used adjectively.

9. An inseparable prefix, or particle, signifying not; in-; non-. In- is prefixed mostly to words of Latin origin, or else to words formed by Latin suffixes; un- is of much wider application, and is attached at will to almost any adjective, or participle used adjectively, or adverb, from which it may be desired to form a corresponding negative adjective or adverb, and is also, but less freely, prefixed to nouns. Un- sometimes has merely an intensive force; as in unmerciless, unremorseless.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Satire

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Crosswords: UN-

German (dis-, il-, im-, in-, ir-), Manx (one-, prefix one-, uni-), Portuguese (un-).

Books

• Klaus Vogel on Double Taxation Conventions: A Commentary to the Oecd-, Un-, and Us Model Conventions for the Avoidance of Double Taxation on Income and Capital, With Particular Reference to (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Afrikaans

-loos (-less). (various references)

Albanian

pa- (non-), mos- (mis-, non-), jo- (in-, non-). (various references)

Arabic 

‏لا (anti-, dis-, im-, in-, neither, no), ‏غير (beyond, budge, but, change, commute, fashion, masquerade, metamorphose, mis, modify, modulate, non, overrun, rehash, renew, reverse, revise, shape, shift, switch, switch over, than, transfer, transpose, turn), ‏بعكس, ‏بادئة (acanthus, prefix, pseudo). (various references)

Bulgarian 

не- (mis-, non-), без- (ex-). (various references)

Chinese 

非 (non-, not-), �"合国 (UN), 無 (-less, no, none, not, not to have, to lack). (various references)

Czech

ne- (in-, ir-, mis-), bez- (ecto-). (various references)

Dutch

on- (dis-, il-, im-, in-, ir-). (various references)

Esperanto

sen-. (various references)

French

mal-, in-, dis-, dés-. (various references)

German

??? (cutthroat, ex-, France, horseshoe, non-, ok, shamefaced, sightseeing, stocktaking, teasel, thumbnail). (various references)

Greek 

στερητικόν πρόθεμα, αρνητικόν πρόθεμα. (various references)

Hungarian

nem (anomalous, breed, caducous, dead to the world, disquieting, extinct, funny, gender, genus, guileless, he doesn't know how to put his things on, his hands were forced, I can make neither head nor tail of this, I can't account for it, I can't make head or tail of this, I think not, I tried and tried but, impertinent, impolitic, impractical, irreducible, isn't it awful I ask you?, jarring, nae, national military authority, nay, no, non, non-compliance, nonconformist, nope, not, plaited, prevarication, sex, square peg in a round hole, stiff, tacky, to be beside the point, to be in sy's black book, to be out of harm's way, to be quick to answer back, to be unlike sg, to be unlike to sg, to be untouched by sg, to disown, to draw the line at sg, to extenuate, to feel slack, to hang fire, to hold one's ground, to jitter, to keep out of sight, to know the ropes, to lose the faculty of speech, to lose the power of speech, to mull, to pass unmarked, to play safe, to prove a broken reed, to stick like a leech, to stick to one's guns, to stick to one's opinions, to take no denial, tribe). (various references)

Italian

non- (non-). (various references)

Manx

neu- (non-, prefix causing lenition non-). (various references)

Portuguese

un-, não-, in-, im-, des-. (various references)

Russian 

не- (non-), без-. (various references)

Scottish

neo- (pref. implying the absence of the quality expressed by the), mi-. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

ne- (non-), ispred prideva, priloga označava odričnost, ispred imenica označava suprotnost, nemanje, ispred glagola označava suprotnu radnju, bez-. (various references)

Spanish

no- (non-), in- (mal-, non-), des- (mal-, non-), anti- (anti-, contra-). (various references)

Swedish

o- (dis-, il-, im-, in-, ir-, non-), -lös (-less), av-. (various references)

Turkish

-sizlik, -siz (devoid of, ex, guiltless, in-, innocent of, lacking, non-, out of, sans, sine, void of, wanting, with no, without), olmayan (non-), değil (ain't, no, not, not a). (various references)

Ukrainian

не- (mal-, mis-, non-). (various references)

Welsh

di- (non-, not, without), dad- (back, dis-, re-), an- (de-, dis-, in-). (various references)

dis-. (various references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: nu, un.

+1 letter: bun, dun, fun, gnu, gun, hun, jun, mun, nub, nun, nus, nut, pun, run, sun, tun, uns, urn.

+2 letters: anus, aunt, bund, bung, bunk, bunn, buns, bunt, burn, cunt, curn, dune, dung, dunk, duns, dunt, durn, faun, fund, funk, funs, gaun, genu, gnus, guan, gunk, guns, hung, hunh, hunk, huns, hunt, junk, knur, kuna, kune, luna, lune, lung, lunk, lunt, luny, maun, menu, muni, muns, muon, neuk, neum, noun, nous, nubs, nude, nuke, null, numb, nuns, nurd, nurl, nuts, onus, puna, pung, punk, puns, punt, puny, quin, ruin, rune, rung, runs, runt, shun, snub, snug, spun, stun, sung, sunk, sunn, suns, tuna, tune, tung, tuns, turn, ulan, ulna, unai, unau, unbe, unci, unco, unde, undo, undy, unit, unto, upon, urns, yuan.