Untold

How to spell untold

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce untold

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does untold mean?

1. adjectiveToo great or too numerous to be measured or counted.
2. adjectiveNot narrated, disclosed, or made known.

Untold in a sentence

• The lottery winner suddenly had untold wealth at her disposal.

• The documentary finally revealed the untold story behind the merger.

• The floods caused untold damage to homes along the river.

• Her diary held untold secrets that the family never suspected.

Where does untold come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word, built entirely from Old English parts, and its history is older than the borrowings that fill most dictionaries. The base is the verb 'tell', from Old English 'tellan', which originally meant 'to count, reckon, or enumerate' as much as 'to narrate'; the modern words 'tally' and 'teller' (as in a bank teller who counts money) preserve that counting sense. The prefix 'un-' is the common Germanic negative, meaning simply 'not'. So 'untold' literally meant 'not counted' or 'not recounted', and from that double root it branched into two everyday meanings: a story that has not been narrated, and a quantity so vast it cannot be counted. The word has been in continuous use since before 1000, which is why the spelling is reassuringly plain: there are no silent letters or doubled consonants, just 'un' joined to 'told'.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• told (past tense/participle of tell, originally 'to count or recount')