Unwarranted

How to spell unwarranted

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce unwarranted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unwarranted mean?

1. adjectiveNot justified, authorised, or supported by good reason.

Unwarranted in a sentence

• The manager apologised for the unwarranted criticism of her report.

• The audit found several unwarranted charges on the company account.

Where does unwarranted come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on 'warrant', which English took from Anglo-Norman and Old French 'warant', meaning a protector, a defender, or an authority that vouches for something. That French form traced back to a Germanic root related to 'warn' and 'ward', carrying the idea of guarding or guaranteeing; the same family gives us 'guarantee', where the Norman 'w' became a Continental 'g'. By the medieval period 'warrant' had come to mean an official guarantee or formal authorisation in English, and the verb developed the sense of 'to justify'. Adding the native prefix 'un-' (meaning 'not') and the past-participle ending '-ed' produced 'unwarranted', describing something that has no justification or proper authority behind it. The spelling trap lives in the middle: a single 'w' but a doubled 'r', because the vowel before it is short, and the easily missed double letter is what catches careful adult writers.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• warrant (a justification or authority, from Old French warant)
• -ed (adjective suffix)