Undecided

How to spell undecided

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce undecided

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does undecided mean?

1. adjectiveNot having made a choice or reached a conclusion; unresolved.

Undecided in a sentence

• Many voters remained undecided until the final debate.

• The committee was still undecided about the venue for the conference.

Where does undecided come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on the verb 'decide', which English borrowed from the Old French 'decider' in the late 1300s, itself drawn from the Latin 'decidere', meaning literally 'to cut off' or 'to cut away'. That Latin verb joins 'de-', meaning 'off' or 'away', with 'caedere', meaning 'to cut', so the original image was of cutting through doubt to reach a settled choice, much as one might cut off a branch to end a debate. The native English prefix 'un-', meaning 'not', was attached to the past participle 'decided' to express the opposite state: a matter still left hanging and unresolved. The form took shape in English well after 'decide' was established, following the regular pattern of negating a participle. The same 'caedere' root for cutting survives in relatives like 'incisive', 'concise', and 'homicide', a reminder that to decide was once to make a clean cut between options.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• decide (from Latin decidere: to cut off, determine)
• -ed (adjective suffix)