Meaning & use
unheated
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparable
Not warmed by any heating system or device; left at the normal temperature of the surroundings.
Grammar: Usually comes before a noun, as in an unheated garage, or after be: the room is unheated.
Patterns
- an unheated room/garage/pool
- be unheated
They keep the bikes in an unheated shed at the end of the garden.
The cottage is beautiful, but the bedrooms are unheated in winter.
We swam in the unheated pool and came out shivering.
adjectivenot comparable
Not yet brought to a high temperature; used about food, liquids or materials that are normally heated.
Grammar: Often describes food or drink in recipes: mix the unheated milk with the eggs.
Patterns
- unheated milk/oil/water
- serve something unheated
The recipe says to add the honey to unheated milk.
You can eat the sauce unheated if you prefer.
Pour unheated water over the leaves so the flavor stays mild.
Common combinations
- unheated room
- The old house has several unheated rooms upstairs.
- unheated pool
- The hotel's unheated pool is only open in summer.
- unheated garage
- He stores his tools in the unheated garage.
- unheated greenhouse
- Tomatoes grow well in an unheated greenhouse in early spring.
- remain unheated
- The building remained unheated for the whole winter.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cold
- More general: it describes anything with a low temperature, whether or not heating exists; unheated stresses that no heating is provided.
- unwarmed
- Very close in meaning but much rarer and more literary; unheated is the normal everyday choice.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: unheated or overheated?
unheated vs overheated
Overheated means heated too much; unheated means not heated at all. The prefixes have opposite effects.
Practice
The swimming pool at the campsite is ___ , so the water feels freezing even in July.
Choose one answer.
Unheated fits because the water is cold due to having no heating. Overheated would mean too warm, heated would mean it is warmed, and heat is a verb or noun, not an adjective after is.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “unheated”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.