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unconditional

US/ˌʌnkənˈdɪʃənəl/
adjectiveB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,628 of 15,258neutral

Unconditional means given with no limits or terms attached. No conditions, and nothing to meet first.

It attaches to love, surrender, support and offers, and each is a strong claim. Unconditional love is what parents are supposed to feel. An unconditional offer from a university means the place is yours whatever your results, which is why they became controversial. Unconditional surrender is a military demand meaning nothing is being negotiated. Its opposite, conditional, is far commoner in ordinary life.

Definitions of unconditional

  1. 1adjectiveunconditionalNot limited by any conditions.B2+

    “They made her an unconditional offer in January.”

Where it comes from

  1. Old French

    condicionel

  2. French

    conditionnel

  3. English

    conditional

  4. English, today

    unconditional

From un- + conditional. conditional comes from French conditionnel, from Old French condicionel, equivalent to condition + -al.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 16 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

unconditional in the wild

  • Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological pressure on a weaker adversary, but it may also prolong hostilities.

    Unconditional surrender

  • During the meeting, Churchill and Roosevelt publicly issued the Casablanca Declaration, which introduced their policy of "unconditional surrender".

    Casablanca Conference

  • The German Instrument of Surrender was a legal document effecting the unconditional surrender of the remaining German armed forces to the Allies, ending World War II in Europe.

    German Instrument of Surrender

  • There are several welfare arrangements that can be considered similar to basic income, although they are not unconditional.

    Universal basic income

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the condicionel family

unconditionalconditional

unconditional — used about once every 3,655 pages · #8,628 · point at the bar for the others

  • condition
  • conditioner