Unchanged

How to spell unchanged

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce unchanged

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unchanged mean?

1. adjectiveNot made different; remaining the same as before.

Unchanged in a sentence

• The report concluded that the budget would remain unchanged for another year.

• After the renovation, the front of the house looked completely unchanged.

Where does unchanged come from?

Language of origin: French

This word joins the native English prefix un-, meaning 'not', to the verb 'change'. The verb itself came into English in the 1200s through Old French changier, which descended from the Late Latin cambiare, meaning 'to barter' or 'to exchange'. That Latin verb is thought to rest on a Celtic root for 'to bend' or 'to turn', so the underlying image is of one thing turning into another. The un- prefix, by contrast, is thoroughly Germanic and one of the oldest building blocks of English, used freely to negate words. The result is a transparent compound that simply means 'made no different', and its spelling trap lies only in remembering that the 'e' of change survives before the -d.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• change (root: to alter)
• -d (past-participle/adjective suffix)