Unchecked

How to spell unchecked

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce unchecked

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unchecked mean?

1. adjectiveNot stopped, controlled, or held back; allowed to continue or grow freely.
2. adjectiveNot inspected, tested, or confirmed for accuracy.

Unchecked in a sentence

• Left unchecked, the weeds soon took over the entire garden.

• The figures went into the report unchecked and contained several errors.

• Unchecked spending on the project pushed the budget far over its limit.

• An unchecked bag was eventually flagged by airport security.

Where does unchecked come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on the verb 'check', whose roots reach back surprisingly far. 'Check' came into English in the 1300s through Old French 'eschec', which traced to the Persian 'shah', meaning 'king', the very word that gives chess its terminology. In chess, to put a king in 'check' was to threaten and restrain it, and from that idea of stopping or holding back grew the broader senses of halting, controlling, and later verifying. The native English prefix 'un-', meaning 'not', was then attached to the past participle to describe anything left unrestrained or unexamined. The spelling stays regular: simply 'un' plus 'checked', with the doubled idea hidden in the silent fact that 'check' already ends in two consonants before the '-ed'.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• check (to stop or verify)
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)