Unfinished

How to spell unfinished

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce unfinished

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unfinished mean?

1. adjectiveNot brought to completion; still lacking some part or stage of work.

Unfinished in a sentence

• The builders left the kitchen unfinished when the budget ran out.

• Her unfinished novel sat in a drawer for a decade.

Where does unfinished come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on the verb 'finish', which English took from Old French 'fenir' or 'finir', meaning 'to end' or 'to complete'. That French verb came from the Latin 'finire', 'to bring to an end', which was itself formed on the noun 'finis', meaning 'a boundary' or 'an end'; the same root survives in everyday words like 'final', 'finite' and 'definite'. To this completed verb English attached two native pieces: the prefix 'un-', an old Germanic negator meaning simply 'not', and the suffix '-ed', which turns a verb into a past participle and then an adjective. The whole compound therefore means 'not brought to an end', and it has been used in English since at least the 1500s. The spelling trap is purely in the middle: 'finish' takes a single 'n' and a single 's' followed by '-ish', so the temptation to double a letter should be resisted.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• finish (from Latin finire: to end)
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)