Unheard
adjectiveNot heard, listened to, or known about; so unusual as to be without precedent.
How to spell unheard
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce unheard
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does unheard mean?
- adjectiveNot heard, listened to, or known about; so unusual as to be without precedent.
Unheard in a sentence
-
A pay rise of that size was almost unheard of in the company.
-
Her quiet complaint went unheard in the noisy meeting.
Where does unheard come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This word is built on the native English verb 'hear', which traces back to the Old English hieran, meaning 'to perceive sound', a verb shared across the Germanic languages and related to the Old Norse heyra and the German horen. The prefix 'un-' is the old Germanic negative particle meaning simply 'not', the same element seen in 'unknown' and 'unseen'. Put together, 'unheard' originally described a sound or a person that had not been listened to, and from the late 1400s it widened into the familiar phrase 'unheard of', meaning something so unusual that nobody has ever heard tell of it. The spelling trap sits entirely in the root: 'heard' keeps the 'ear' from 'hear' even though it is pronounced 'erd', so writers who spell by sound are tempted to write 'unherd'. Remembering that you 'hear' with your 'ear' keeps the silent logic of the spelling intact.
How the word is built
- un- (not)
- heard (past participle of hear, from Old English hieran)
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