unborn

English

Etymology

From Middle English unborn, from Old English unboren, from Proto-Germanic *unburanaz. Equivalent to un- +‎ born.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)n

Adjective

unborn (not comparable)

  1. Not yet born; yet to come; future.
  2. Not yet delivered; still existing in the mother's womb.
    • 2007 September 10, “Review: Jones, Coens, Penn highlight Toronto”, in CNN‎[1]:
      Ellen Page gives a star-making performance as a 16-year-old live wire who decides to go through with her pregnancy and seeks acceptably well-adjusted, wealthy, punk-rock loving parents for the unborn baby.
  3. Existing without birth or beginning.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

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Translations to be checked

Noun

unborn (countable and uncountable, plural unborns)

  1. (countable) A single unborn offspring at any stage of gestation.
    • 2009, Catherine Playoust, Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, “The Leaping Child: Imagining the Unborn in Early Christian Literature”, in Vanessa R. Sasson, Jane Marie Law, editors, Imagining the Fetus: The Unborn in Myth, Religion, and Culture, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 176:
      Whereas the lack of a child brings shame upon Anna and Joachim, the converse holds true for Mary: the existence of an unborn in the womb of a woman who is supposed to be a virgin causes great scandal.
  2. (uncountable) Unborn offspring collectively.
    Inheritance law allows property to be left to the unborn.

Quotations

  • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:unborn.
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