Unintentional

How to spell unintentional

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce unintentional

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unintentional mean?

1. adjectiveNot done on purpose; happening by accident rather than by deliberate choice.

Unintentional in a sentence

• The offence was clearly unintentional, so the manager issued only a gentle warning.

• Any unintentional omission from the invoice will be corrected free of charge.

Where does unintentional come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on the Latin verb intendere, which literally meant 'to stretch toward' or 'to direct one's attention at', combining the prefix in- ('toward') with tendere ('to stretch'). From that verb came the noun intentio, the act of directing the mind at something, which passed through Old French into English in the 1300s as 'intention'. The adjective 'intentional' (done on purpose) was formed by adding the Latin suffix -al, and the native English negative prefix un- ('not') was then attached to give 'unintentional', meaning not done on purpose. The same tendere root, the idea of stretching, still lies hidden in everyday relatives such as 'tense', 'tendon', and 'extend'. The spelling trap is the stacked prefixes un- plus in-, which produce a double n that writers often reduce to one, plus the soft -tion- that sounds like 'shun'.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• in- (toward)
• tent (stretch, from Latin tendere)
• -ion (noun-forming)
• -al (adjective-forming)