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unladen

unladen

1 5.6
Not carrying any load, physically or in your mind
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈleɪdən/
: desprovisto
  • The bird flew unladen across the sky, enjoying the freedom that comes from not carrying any burdens.

Examples

  • After the rain, the field was quiet and unladen, with only the sound of the wind blowing through the grass.

  • We are driven, we common readers, to approach Job's story with tremulous palms held upward and unladen.

    Academic text (1998)
  • This is is it an unladen European swallow?

  • That's an unladen swallow's flight, obviously.

  • The concept car has an unladen weight of about 1,390 kg, including the large lithium-ion battery.

    Blog text (28)
  • In all the high school textbooks, it is said that science must be firmly rooted in experiment or observation, unladen with theoretical preconceptions.

    Academic text (1994)
  • The unladen cart rolled smoothly down the hill, free from the weight it usually carried.

Synonyms

unencumbered
vsunladen
11 6.8

Free from worries, duties, debts and other things that hold you back

focuses on physical absence of a weight rather than figurative freedom
unweighted
vsunladen
  • Specialized
1 3.7

An exercise performed without extra weight

applies to absence of added weight not to carrying empty loads
unburdened
vsunladen
1 5.3

Not carrying heavy things

is about not carrying an actual load or cargo
burdenless
vsunladen
1 7.2

Not carrying a weight or feeling heavy with worry

focuses specifically on absence of things that weigh down

Antonyms

to laden
  • Archaic
1 4.8

To put a heavy load onto something, for example a truck

How Laden

overladen
1 7.0
loaded
359 2.6
unladen
1 5.6
empty
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

unladen positive

Morphology

unladen = laden (transparent) = un + laden

Standard negation prefix 'un-' attached to 'laden' yields 'not carrying a load', directly inferable from the parts.

Etymology

The word unladen is made of un- meaning 'not' and laden meaning 'loaded', the same idea as the everyday word load. So unladen means 'not carrying a load', which is why we use it for an empty truck or for someone who feels free from a burden.