Undocumented

How to spell undocumented

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce undocumented

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does undocumented mean?

1. adjectiveNot supported, recorded, or proven by written evidence or paperwork.
2. adjectiveLiving or working in a country without the legal authorisation or official papers required.

Undocumented in a sentence

• The auditors flagged several undocumented payments that had no receipts.

• The charity offers free legal advice to undocumented workers facing deportation.

• Much of the building's early history remains undocumented and unverifiable.

• The report estimated how many undocumented residents lived in the city.

Where does undocumented come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from three transparent parts. The core is 'document', which came into English in the late 1300s through Old French from the Latin documentum, meaning 'a lesson, an example, or a piece of evidence'; that noun grew from the verb docere, 'to teach', the same root that gives us 'doctor' (originally a learned teacher) and 'doctrine'. Over time 'document' shifted from meaning 'something that instructs' to meaning 'a written record that proves something'. The verb 'to document', meaning to support or record with written evidence, then yielded the adjective 'documented'. The negative prefix 'un-', a native Germanic element meaning simply 'not', was attached to produce 'undocumented', describing anything lacking official paperwork or proof; the spelling is regular throughout, so the only real care needed is the single 'c' and the unstressed 'u' in the middle of 'documented'.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• document (record, from Latin documentum: a lesson or proof)
• -ed (past-participle/adjective suffix)