Unharmed

How to spell unharmed

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce unharmed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unharmed mean?

1. adjectiveNot hurt, injured, or damaged in any way.

Unharmed in a sentence

• The driver walked away unharmed after the crash.

• All the hostages were released unharmed the next morning.

Where does unharmed come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built entirely from native English material. The core, 'harm', descends from the Old English noun 'hearm', meaning injury, grief, or insult, which had close relatives across the Germanic languages, including Old Norse 'harmr' for sorrow and Old High German 'harm'. To this the speakers of English added two of the language's most productive native pieces: the negating prefix 'un-', meaning 'not', and the suffix '-ed', which turns a noun or verb into an adjective describing a state. The result literally means 'in a state of not being harmed'. Because every part is plain Old English rather than a borrowing, the spelling is regular and phonetic; the only thing to watch is keeping the single 'm' before the silent 'ed', since the 'd' is pronounced almost as a 't' here.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• harm (injury, from Old English hearm)
• -ed (adjective/participle suffix)