Meanings
plural unthoughts
- That which has not been (yet) thought; that which has yet to enter into the mind; a non-existent thought.
But without his knowing, they interfere with his research and at the very least call on him to put the results in perspective. This is what we call the “unthoughts” of scientific work.
2011, Jean-Bernard Ouédraogo, Carlos Cardoso, Readings in Methodology3 more examples
There is no tapping into some stream of desire yet to be revealed. Desire through cinemasochism resonates again with traditional masochism in the vertigo of being faced with an unthought that cannot be thought and a desire that cannot know itself […]
2012, Ms Patricia MacCormack, CinesexualityModern thought renounces the pure transparency of the Cartesian cogito in the recognition that the cogito is intrinsically tied to an unthought which escapes the reflection of the cogito even as it makes this reflection possible.
2013, David Owen, Maturity and ModernityGiven the power of the word, our lack of control over the word once it is spoken, and our even greater lack once it is published, I have often wondered: What may have been the consequences of my many published unthoughts?
2014, Assoc for Hispanic Theological Education, A Legacy of Fifty Years
- participlepastsimple past and past participle of unthink
- not comparableNot having been thought.
For Bion it is not thinking which produces thoughts but unthought thoughts which require an apparatus for thinking them.
1995, Jane Ellwood, Psychosis: Understanding and Treatment, page 78
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveso unexpected as to have not been imagined
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From un- + thought. Compare Old English unþanc (“disfavour, displeasure, anger, ill-will”).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
unthought. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unthought
“unthought.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unthought. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unthought,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unthought.
Source: unthought on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.