Unrestricted

How to spell unrestricted

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce unrestricted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unrestricted mean?

1. adjectiveNot limited or controlled by rules, conditions, or boundaries.

Unrestricted in a sentence

• The membership grants unrestricted access to every gym in the chain.

• A few rural roads remain unrestricted by any speed limit.

Where does unrestricted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word builds on the Latin verb restringere, which meant 'to bind back' or 'to hold in tightly', formed from re- 'back' and stringere 'to draw tight or bind'. Its past participle restrictus passed into English through Old French as 'restrict', carrying the idea of confining or limiting something within set bounds. The same stringere root gives us a family of related words, including 'stringent', 'strict', and even 'strain', all of which keep the sense of pulling something tight. To make the modern adjective, English added the native negative prefix un- meaning 'not', so 'unrestricted' literally describes something that has not been bound or held in. The spelling trap sits in the middle: there is a single s and a hard -ct- cluster before the ending, since 'strict' keeps the c that the Latin participle handed down.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• re- (back)
• strict (from Latin stringere: to bind or draw tight)
• -ed (adjective/participle suffix)