unlearn means to discard the knowledge of. It carries an Arena rating of 1643, earned across 23 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, unlearn ranks #68 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,167 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,253 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,669 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
unlearn is pronounced /ʌnˈləːn/.
Why “unlearn” is a great word
UNLEARN — [Verb] To deliberately discard or set aside knowledge or a habitual practice that one has previously internalized. From Middle English unlernen, formed by the negative prefix un- + the verb learn. Unlike "forget" (which implies a passive or accidental loss) or "reject" (which means to refuse an idea at the threshold), to unlearn is a willful, often arduous act of cognitive dismantling. It is the soldier consciously softening his reflexive posture upon returning home, the pianist laboring to erase a flawed fingering, and the quiet, daily work of peeling away a prejudice once held as instinct—a quiet rebellion against the tyranny of one's own accumulated self.
Etymology
From Middle English unlernen. By surface analysis, un- + learn.
verb
- To discard the knowledge of.e.g.“It was another lesson from Fort Hare that I had to unlearn in Johannesburg.” — 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 80:
- To break a habit.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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