What does unhurt mean?
Unhurt means “not hurt” and most often describes a person or animal that has escaped injury. The word appears in reports of accidents, emergencies, conflicts, and dangerous journeys: someone may survive an incident without a scratch, or a vehicle may leave a crash without harm. Although its dominant sense concerns physical safety, unhurt can also apply to objects, buildings, landscapes, and abstract things that have not been damaged or impaired by an event. Its tone is reassuring and sometimes literary, carrying an implication that the subject came through danger intact. Compared with “uninjured,” “unharmed,” and “unscathed,” unhurt is concise and accessible, but it can suggest a more dramatic situation in which injury was possible. The word is particularly useful when the contrast with harm is more important than specifying the kind of harm that was avoided.
adjectiveNot hurt or injured; unharmed. It can also mean undamaged or unaffected by something harmful.
- Not physically hurt, injured, or harmed.
- Not damaged, impaired, or adversely affected.
"The passengers were fortunate to emerge from the crash unhurt."
"Despite the fall, the climber was unhurt."
"The old building remained unhurt by the storm."
A body can be unhurt, and so can a building, a landscape, or an object that has escaped serious damage.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does unhurt come from?
Unhurt is an English formation created by combining the negative prefix un- with hurt. The prefix un- was already established in English for forming negative words before unhurt developed. Hurt itself has Germanic ancestry, reflected in the Old English form hyrt and in Old French hurter, which also influenced Middle English usage.
How unhurt is actually used
Neutral and standard, though it can sound slightly literary compared with “uninjured” or “unscathed.” It is commonly used predicatively, especially in constructions such as “come out unhurt.”