unwritten

«unwritten» in Mova's school dictionary: not written down; existing only in speech or memory — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

adjective (unwritten)

meaning for a pupil

1) Unwritten means not written down; existing only in speech or memory. tree →

2) An unwritten rule is one that everybody follows or knows, even though nobody wrote it down. tree →

3) Unwritten can also mean not yet written, like an unwritten story or chapter. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life: unwritten rules, like not taking the last biscuit or queuing politely. In history and law: the UK has an «unwritten constitution» (not one single document). In language lessons: some languages are unwritten, passed on by speaking.

examples

• It's an unwritten rule not to sit in Grandad's chair. tree →
• The UK is said to have an unwritten constitution. tree →
• Some languages are still unwritten. tree →
• The ending of the story is still unwritten. tree →
• Queuing at the bus stop is an unwritten rule. tree →
• The old songs were unwritten and passed on by singing. tree →
• The response of Uncle Remus led to the earnest recital of a piece of unwritten history that must prove interesting to ethnologists. tree →

note

From the irregular verb «write – wrote – written»; double t. Opposite: «written». An unwritten rule is real even though it has no paper.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «unwritten» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.