as in oral
made or carried on through speaking rather than in writing
an unwritten contract may not be enforceable
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Recent Examples of unwritten
Aggression arises from desperation, and from violations of unwritten codes.
—
Zach Helfand, New Yorker, 5 May 2025
The unwritten rule book to erode controversy is simple: Steer clear of religious and/or political themes, and align with widely acceptable moral frameworks.
—Viren Naidu, IndieWire, 2 Apr. 2025
Related article Remember when Princess Diana danced with John Travolta at the White House?
Even Jackie Kennedy — who was celebrated for her ever-appropriate, timeless dress sense — sometimes eschewed the unwritten mandate of wearing American apparel.
—Leah Dolan, CNN, 18 Jan. 2025
Beyond formal training, new employees learn unwritten rules, insider tips and valuable knowledge from experienced colleagues.
—Rajesh Rajagopalan, Forbes.com, 27 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unwritten
Zach Helfand, New Yorker, 5 May 2025
The unwritten rule book to erode controversy is simple: Steer clear of religious and/or political themes, and align with widely acceptable moral frameworks.
—Viren Naidu, IndieWire, 2 Apr. 2025
Related article Remember when Princess Diana danced with John Travolta at the White House?
Even Jackie Kennedy — who was celebrated for her ever-appropriate, timeless dress sense — sometimes eschewed the unwritten mandate of wearing American apparel.
—Leah Dolan, CNN, 18 Jan. 2025
Beyond formal training, new employees learn unwritten rules, insider tips and valuable knowledge from experienced colleagues.
—Rajesh Rajagopalan, Forbes.com, 27 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unwritten
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unwritten
Adjective
-
The ruling comes ahead of a June 30 oral argument in a related case before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas, where Judge James Ho, a Trump appointee, previously criticized the Supreme Court for punting the matter back to his court.—
Kaelan Deese,
The Washington Examiner,
7 June 2025
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The Supreme Court agrees to hear the Justice Department's appeal of the 9th Circuit ruling, leading to oral arguments.—
Anthony Robledo,
USA Today,
6 June 2025
Adjective
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These were meetings of twenty-five or so women, each of whom paid the substantial sum of ten dollars to hear Fuller exercise her verbal brilliance in the course of a thirteen-week-long series, in semiprivate settings.—
James Marcus,
New Yorker,
2 June 2025
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The incident began with a verbal argument, according to Pembroke Pines Police.—
Milena Malaver,
Miami Herald,
31 May 2025
Adjective
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Imagine for example that the new language was easy to write down but extremely hard to use via the spoken word.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
29 May 2025
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The videos also tend to show garbled subtitles that almost match the spoken words, which is an artifact of subtitles on videos present in the training data.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
29 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unwritten.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unwritten. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
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