Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
unattained

unattained

6.6
Not reached or achieved yet
  • adjective
  • /ˌʌnəˈteɪnd/
translation icon : no alcanzado
  • Beyond noting the conventional hyperbolic rhetoric of a lover before his unattained love object, how are we to define this notion of "extrahuman" importance?

Whether you're looking at the private or the public sector, pay parity remains unattained at many levels in both public and private sectors.

Examples

  • Whether you're looking at the private or the public sector, pay parity remains unattained at many levels in both public and private sectors.

    Harvard University

  • At the same time, colonial missionaries were condemned as ineffective; their contemporary successors focused on completing their work: the as yet unattained 'interior' penetration of a superficial Christian identity.

    Academic text (2002)

  • That idealization that he so prized in Argentina was to him a formal victory: she took the "paroxysmic beat" of Spanish dance, he said, and "disciplined it into form," pushing it "to hitherto unattained heights of sublimation."

    Academic text (1991)

  • Unattainable and unattained standards provide citizen activists and organizers with the ammunition they need to maintain a steady barrage of criticism of the EPA and serve as a continual reminder to the affected community that they are being slighted.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Despite her efforts, the championship title remained unattained after several years of competition.

  • The dream of eliminating poverty in the region seemed unattained even after numerous social programs were introduced.

  • His goal of running a marathon in under three hours was still unattained after a decade of training.

Synonyms

unmet
vsunattained
8 4.5

Not satisfied or completed, for example a need left without help

is a neutral term for something not finished rather than specifically unsatisfied
unreached
vsunattained
1 7.5

A place people do not visit that is hard to get to

is the broader idea of something remaining unfinished rather than physical distance
unaccomplished
vsunattained
1 4.1

Has not achieved success or finished something

focuses on absence rather than on failure or lack of success
unachieved
vsunattained
5.5

Not done or reached yet

is a neutral word that does not imply future completion

Antonyms

attained
2.9

Reached a goal, level, or age

How Achieved

complete
863 1.0
attained
2.9
unfinished
132 2.7
partial
203 3.4
unattained
6.6

Surface Forms

unattained positive

Morphology

unattained = attained (transparent) = un + attain + ed

The negative prefix 'un-' is productively applied to the past participle/adjective 'attained' to yield 'not achieved', which is straightforward for learners.

Etymology

Unattained is made of un- meaning 'not' and attain meaning 'to reach' or 'to get', the same root you see in obtain. So something unattained is simply not reached or not achieved, like a goal you have not yet reached.