Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🚀 Not controlled 🧭 Without help
unguided

unguided

2 6.6
Not controlled after it is launched, like a simple rocket
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈɡaɪdɪd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : no guiado
  • We sent 65 unguided mail balloons and only two went missing.
  • unguided bombs

Examples

  • In a blinding streak of light, Borillo pumped out all eight of his five-inch unguided Zuni rockets at the Chinese patrol plane, at a range of about three miles.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Now the trailer is an unguided missile, weaving drunkenly back and forth across the blacktop.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Most of these were short-range, and all of them were unguided.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Once more he was tobogganing into the darkness, unguided and out of control.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Pakistan lacks laser-guided missiles like the Hellfire used on U.S. Predator and Reaper drones and the advanced targeting system that goes with it, so the military has been using unguided rockets that are much less accurate.

    Blog text (27)

  • The vast majority of unguided bombs were used against military targets in southern Iraq and Kuwait: fully 26 percent of the entire tonnage dropped during the war was delivered by B-52s, and almost all of that was against Iraqi military forces and defensive positions in the KTO.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The military deployed several unguided bombs during the airstrike, causing significant damage to the area.

  • All of the artillery shells fired were unguided, leading to unpredictable impacts on the battlefield.

  • The pilot had to avoid the unguided missiles that were not aimed correctly and could strike randomly.

Synonyms

directionless
vsunguided
4 6.0

Having no clear aim or plan

applies to things without active control after motion rather than lack of purpose
undirected
vsunguided
1 6.1

Not having a clear aim or plan in what you do

refers specifically to objects that lose control after launch
unaimed
vsunguided
5.8

Not meant for any one person or thing

refers to lacking control after launch rather than lack of aim

Antonyms

guided
  • Specialized
1 4.0

A device or vehicle controlled to follow a set path and reach a target

How Guided

guided
  • Specialized
1 4.0
unguided
  • Specialized
2 6.6
uncontrolled
31 3.9

Surface Forms

unguided positive

Morphology

unguided = guided (transparent) = un + guide + ed

Formed by negating the adjective 'guided' with the productive prefix 'un-', so the meaning 'not directed or controlled' is directly predictable.

Etymology

The word unguided comes from the prefix un- meaning 'not' and guide meaning 'to lead' or 'to steer'. So an unguided missile or rocket is one that is 'not steered' after it is launched.