How to Use unread in a Sentence

unread

adjective
  • On her desk was a pile of magazines that had been left unread for months.
  • To find unread emails, go to the search bar at the top of your Gmail account.
    Kim Komando, USA TODAY, 23 May 2021
  • Send a text out of the blue, don’t leave messages unread.
    Dallas News, 5 Apr. 2020
  • When the name of a channel is in bold font, that means there are unread messages in the chat.
    WIRED, 28 Oct. 2022
  • When the name of a channel is in bold font, that means there are unread messages in the chat .
    Boone Ashworth, Wired, 19 Dec. 2021
  • Click through to check out the best of the sale — trust us, this is way more important that those 25 unread emails.
    Emily Ruane, refinery29.com, 7 Jan. 2020
  • Some 90% of the cables in her house are never used, and 19% of her books remain unread.
    CNN, 7 July 2022
  • Bookey is a stack of unread books that lives by a bed and haunts the other characters with the stress of not reading enough.
    Emily Flake, The New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2022
  • An influx of pressing work emails. 97 unread texts from your friend group chat.
    Lauren Valenti, Vogue, 10 Nov. 2018
  • On Android, hold down on a conversation, tap the three dots, then Mark it as unread.
    Kim Komando, USA TODAY, 15 Feb. 2024
  • The tool can also open new emails, download their contents, and then mark them as unread, so as not to raise suspicions.
    WIRED, 28 Dec. 2021
  • This is a hefty, taffy-colored leather chair facing the fireplace, with Thad’s stack of (mostly unread) books beside it.
    Joyce Carol Oates, Harper's Magazine, 10 July 2023
  • Contact us by unread text; cryptic one-line e-mail; or frantic phone call.
    Nikki Palumbo, The New Yorker, 19 June 2021
  • Carey's followers were quick to point out the icon's full battery, low number of unread messages, and the fact that both stars had the other in their contacts.
    Rachel Schonberger, EW.com, 18 Mar. 2022
  • In fact, the phenomenon of owning unread books is so common, there’s even a term for it: the antilibrary.
    Hollyanna McCollom, Better Homes & Gardens, 5 May 2023
  • Number of unread emails: 14—I don’t like full mailboxes.
    WSJ, 2 Apr. 2019
  • That film led Dornan to find some unread texts from his father, commenting on his work in the hit comedy.
    Clayton Davis, Variety, 5 Nov. 2021
  • Woolf crowned Wollstonecraft as a mother of English feminism and banished Cavendish to the mausoleum of unread books.
    Ruth Scurr, WSJ, 29 Dec. 2023
  • Challenging movies can slide too easily to the bottom of the queue, neglected like unread books on the night stand or jars of exotic mustard at the back of the fridge.
    New York Times, 30 Dec. 2020
  • Inside it, for now, the teachers' messages remain unread.
    CNN, 10 Dec. 2019
  • But if your ballot is still sitting on your desk, or the nightstand, or underneath a stack of unread New Yorkers, don’t despair.
    Sonja Sharpstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 3 June 2022
  • The nursery in Amy Fabbrini and Eric Ziegler's home is filled with unread children's books and unworn baby clothes.
    Samantha Swindler, OregonLive.com, 18 July 2017
  • An unread newspaper from Jan. 7 was found in the home, according to the criminal complaint.
    Julia Moore, Peoplemag, 19 Jan. 2023
  • His social media and cell phone inboxes seemed to always be full of unread messages.
    David J. Kim, The Courier-Journal, 22 Sep. 2020
  • Winter dutifully wrote everything down, hung up the phone, and handed the paper to Chase — who promptly wadded it up into a ball and threw it in the trash, unread.
    Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 3 Jan. 2024
  • By May, when the department realized what was going on, there were 321 unread messages in that account.
    New York Times, 15 July 2019
  • The message went unread, but when Page sent out a proposal in February 2022, Clark made sure her company was ready to make an offer.
    Amy Kaufman, Los Angeles Times, 4 June 2023
  • For instance, in the older version tapping a folder full of unread items took you straight to a list view, but now there’s an intermediate step that lists all the feeds in that folder.
    Paul Adams, WIRED, 13 May 2008
  • Between the 24-hour news cycle and the rising levels of unread emails in your inbox, finding a moment of Zen has become something of a survival tactic.
    Sophie Schulte-Hillen, Vogue, 7 May 2017
  • Is the reason my email inbox says 1967 unread emails (most of them spam, but probably some important ones hidden in there) because of ADHD or autism?
    Laura Newberry, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unread.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: