Unreleased

How to spell unreleased

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce unreleased

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unreleased mean?

1. adjectiveNot yet made available to the public, especially a recording, film, or document.

Unreleased in a sentence

• The band shared an unreleased demo with their newsletter subscribers.

• The studio archive holds hours of unreleased footage from the original shoot.

Where does unreleased come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on 'release', which travelled into English in the 1300s from the Old French verb relaisser or relesser, meaning 'to let go' or 'to set free'. That French verb descended from the Latin relaxare, literally 'to loosen again', formed from re- 'back' and laxare 'to slacken or loosen', the same root that gives us 'relax' and 'lax'. To this base English added the native Germanic prefix un-, meaning 'not', and the participle ending -ed, producing an adjective describing something that has not been let go to the public. The modern sense flourished in the twentieth century with recorded music and film, where an 'unreleased' track or movie is one held back from publication. The spelling stays transparent once you see its three blocks, un + release + ed, with the silent middle e of 'release' simply carried through.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• re- (back, again)
• leas (loosen, from Latin laxare)
• -ed (past participle adjective suffix)