Uncovered

How to spell uncovered

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce uncovered

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does uncovered mean?

1. verbPast tense of uncover: to have removed a covering, or to have revealed something previously hidden.
2. adjectiveNot protected, wrapped, or concealed by a covering.

Uncovered in a sentence

• verb

  The auditors uncovered a serious gap in the accounts.

• adjective

  The dish was left uncovered on the counter overnight.

• verb

  Workers uncovered an old mosaic beneath the floorboards.

• adjective

  The fresh bread was left uncovered on the kitchen table all evening.

Where does uncovered come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on the verb 'cover', which English borrowed from Old French 'covrir' in the medieval period; that French verb came in turn from the Latin 'cooperire', meaning 'to cover over completely', formed from 'co-' (an intensifying prefix) and 'operire' (to close or shut). The native English prefix 'un-', from Old English, was attached to express reversal or negation, so 'uncover' literally means to undo the covering, and adding '-ed' produces both the past tense and the descriptive adjective. The word has carried two related ideas since at least the 1500s: the physical sense of leaving something bare, and the figurative sense of bringing a hidden fact into the open. The spelling is comfortingly transparent once you see the three parts, since 'un' plus 'cover' plus 'ed' simply stack together with no doubled letters or silent surprises. The same 'operire' root also lies behind 'aperture', the opening in a camera, which by contrast names the act of leaving something open rather than shutting it.

How the word is built

• un- (reversal/not)
• cover (from Latin cooperire: to cover over)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)