Meaning & use
unsorted
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Meaning
adjectivecomparable
Not arranged into groups or put in any particular order.
Grammar: Comes before a noun or after a verb: an unsorted pile, or the mail was unsorted.
Patterns
- leave something unsorted
The unsorted mail piled up on the hallway table.
She handed me a box of unsorted photographs and asked me to put them in order.
The program returns the unsorted list if no key is given.
Common combinations
- unsorted mail
- The unsorted mail filled three trays.
- unsorted data
- Unsorted data is hard to read at a glance.
- unsorted pile
- An unsorted pile of laundry covered the bed.
- leave unsorted
- Do not leave the recycling unsorted.
Synonyms and how they differ
- disorganized
- Disorganized describes a messy state or person and suggests general chaos, while unsorted just says no grouping has been done yet.
- jumbled
- Jumbled implies items are mixed up in a confused way, which is stronger than simply unsorted.
- unclassified
- Unclassified applies to items not placed in categories, and in official use can mean not secret.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: unsorted or unsought?
unsorted vs unsought
Unsought means not looked for or asked for, as in unsought advice; it does not mean not arranged.
Practice
The librarian found a trolley of ____ returns that still had to be shelved by subject.
Choose one answer.
Unsorted means not yet put into order. Unsought means not asked for, which makes little sense for books being returned.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “unsorted”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.