Unexplained

How to spell unexplained

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce unexplained

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unexplained mean?

1. adjectiveNot made clear or accounted for; lacking a known reason or cause.

Unexplained in a sentence

• The auditor flagged several unexplained charges on the company account.

• Her sudden unexplained absence from the meeting puzzled the whole team.

Where does unexplained come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on 'explain', which English took in the 1400s from the Latin verb explanare, meaning 'to make flat' or 'to smooth out', and so figuratively 'to make plain or clear'. That Latin verb joins ex-, meaning 'out', to planus, meaning 'flat' or 'level', the very same root that gives us 'plain' and 'plane'. The negative prefix un- is a native Germanic element inherited from Old English, where it has long flipped the meaning of the word it attaches to. Combining the prefix with the past participle gave 'unexplained', describing something that has not been made clear, a form recorded from around the 1700s. The spelling trap sits in the middle: the unstressed vowel of '-plain-' is easy to slip, and writers sometimes wrongly double a letter or forget that it ends in the silent participle '-ed'.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• explain (from Latin explanare: to make clear)
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)