What does unremembering mean?
Unremembering is a literary word for being forgetful or failing to retain what one has learned. It can also appear as a participle in a construction such as “unremembering the road,” where the subject is actively failing to call the road to mind. The expression is more evocative than the plain everyday “forgetful”: it suggests not merely absent-mindedness but a mind in which experiences, names, or promises have slipped away. In its adjectival use, as in “an unremembering face,” it describes a person or thing associated with forgetting; as a participle, it places the failure to remember within the action itself. The word is consequently well suited to poetry, literary prose, and reflective descriptions of memory and loss. In ordinary conversation, “forgetful” or “unable to remember” will usually be clearer. Unremembering belongs to an English word family built on remember, including memory, memorable, and remembrance, while the prefix un- reverses the usual expectation that an experience will be retained.
adjectiveNot remembering or failing to recall; forgetful. It may also function as a participle meaning failing to remember something.
- Not remembering; forgetful, oblivious, or failing to recall an experience or piece of information.
"The old man sat before the family photographs with an unremembering gaze."
"The old man sat before the family photographs with an unremembering gaze."
"She kept unremembering the birthday, as though it had never been marked."
Two closely related words point in opposite directions: unforgettable preserves an experience, while unremembering lets it disappear.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of unremembering
Unremembering was formed in English from un- and remembering, using the prefix un- to negate the idea of retention. Remember comes through Middle English and Old French remembrer from Latin rememorari, meaning “to remember again.” The same root underlies memory, memorable, and remembrance.
Related word forms
How unremembering is actually used
Chiefly literary or poetic and somewhat old-fashioned; ordinary prose usually prefers forgetful, absent-minded, or unable to remember. When followed by an object, it may function as the present participle of the uncommon verb unremember.
Easily confused with unremembering
Unforgettable means impossible to forget, whereas unremembering describes someone or something that is failing to remember.