Unilaterally

How to spell unilaterally

12 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce unilaterally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unilaterally mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is done or decided by one side or party alone, without the agreement of others.

Unilaterally in a sentence

• The supplier unilaterally raised its prices without warning the retailers.

• The government acted unilaterally rather than waiting for its allies to commit.

Where does unilaterally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word reaches back to the Latin unus, meaning 'one', combined with latus, meaning 'side' (whose stem appears as later- in forms like lateris). A 'unilateral' arrangement was therefore literally something 'one-sided', involving a single party rather than two. The adjective 'unilateral' entered English in the early 1800s, largely through legal and diplomatic writing where it described agreements or actions taken by just one of the parties involved. The adverb 'unilaterally' followed naturally by adding the ordinary English ending -ly. The same latus root for 'side' survives in everyday relatives such as 'lateral', 'bilateral' (two-sided) and 'collateral' (something running alongside), and recognising that buried 'later' (side) helps explain the single l before it and the doubled-looking cluster that trips writers up.

How the word is built

• uni- (one)
• later (side, from Latin latus)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)