Unrest

How to spell unrest

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce unrest

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unrest mean?

1. nounA state of dissatisfaction, agitation, or disturbance, especially political or social turmoil among a group of people.

Unrest in a sentence

• Growing unrest among the workers led to a strike at the factory.

• The sudden tax rise sparked widespread unrest in the capital.

Where does unrest come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a straightforward English compound built from the negating prefix un-, meaning 'not' or 'the absence of', and the noun rest, which in Old English was ræst or rest and meant repose, quiet, or a state of being at ease. The prefix un- is one of the oldest and most productive parts of the language, inherited from Old English and ultimately from the same ancient Germanic source that gave German its 'un-' and Latin its 'in-'. The combined form unrest appears in Middle English around the late 1300s, originally describing a personal lack of inner calm or a troubled, agitated mind. Over the following centuries the meaning broadened from the individual to the social and political, so that today it most often describes turmoil among a population. Because both halves are common, ordinary words, the spelling holds no real surprises; the only thing to remember is that it is written as a single unhyphenated word.

How the word is built

• un- (not, lack of)
• rest (calm, repose)