Unmarried

How to spell unmarried

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce unmarried

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unmarried mean?

1. adjectiveNot joined to anyone in marriage; single.

Unmarried in a sentence

• The survey counted how many adults in the town remain unmarried.

• As an unmarried tenant, she signed the lease in her own name.

Where does unmarried come from?

Language of origin: French

This is a negative form built on the verb 'marry', which English took from the Old French 'marier', meaning 'to give in marriage' or 'to take in marriage'. That French verb descended from the Latin 'maritare', 'to wed', which in turn came from 'maritus', the Latin word for a married man or husband. The negating prefix 'un-' is a native Germanic element from Old English, used freely to reverse adjectives and participles, so 'unmarried' is a hybrid: a French-Latin core wrapped in an English negative. The spelling trap lives in the middle and the end: the doubled 'r' carried over from 'marry', and the 'y' of 'marry' turns to 'i' before the '-ed' ending, giving 'married' and then 'unmarried'. Anyone who remembers that 'marry' already has a double 'r' will spell the longer word correctly.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• marri- (from marry)
• -ed (past participle used as adjective)