What does unlearn mean?
Unlearn is a verb meaning to reverse the process of learning. It can describe deliberately abandoning a habit, attitude, belief, or pattern of behaviour that is no longer useful or appropriate. For example, someone recovering from a serious injury may have to unlearn an old movement or rely on a different way of walking. In a more general sense, unlearn means to forget something that was once learned, though the word often suggests an effort to remove knowledge or behaviour that continues to feel familiar. Unlike simply forget, which can be involuntary and neutral, unlearn can imply deliberate change: it presents learning as something that can be undone. The word is especially associated with education, psychology, rehabilitation, and self-improvement, but it is also used in ordinary conversation. Its unusual power comes from the prefix un-, which makes learning sound reversible and makes the verb especially useful when discussing habits, assumptions, and patterns that need to be replaced.
verbTo forget or deliberately abandon something that has been learned, especially a habit, belief, or pattern of behaviour.
- To deliberately abandon or undo a learned habit, belief, attitude, or behaviour.
- To forget something that one has learned.
"It is possible to unlearn a habit that no longer serves you."
"Children may need to unlearn habits that were encouraged at home."
"I cannot remember the phone number, but I suppose I have unlearned it by now."
To unlearn is to give learning a backspace key.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does unlearn come from?
Unlearn was formed in English in the early 17th century by combining the prefix un- with the existing verb learn. Learn comes from Old English leornian, which meant to acquire knowledge or skill and was inherited from Proto-Germanic. The prefixed verb initially developed the sense of forgetting or undoing what had been acquired, and modern usage expanded it to include consciously abandoning learned habits and attitudes.
Related word forms
How unlearn is actually used
Neutral to formal and especially common in education, psychology, coaching, and self-improvement contexts. It is more often used transitively, with a habit, belief, skill, or piece of information as its object.
Easily confused with unlearn
As a verb it can mean the same as unlearn, but as an adjective it usually means not having learned something.