MEANING
1. To cease noticing a visible feature or pattern after having recognized it.
2. To erase from one’s mind an image or scene that one has seen.
Use it for
describing a detail that becomes impossible to overlook; showing a perception permanently altered by recognition; distinguishing seeing a pattern from remembering an unpleasant sceneDistinguishes being unable to stop noticing a visual feature from being unable to erase the memory of an image. Writing functions: Memory / Perception.
Words that belong together
- cannot unsee a pattern
- hard to unsee a resemblance
- once noticed
- impossible to unsee
On the page
Once she noticed the face in the wallpaper, she could not unsee it.
The resemblance between the two signatures was difficult to unsee after he pointed it out.
He shut the drawer, wishing he could unsee the photograph inside.
She could leave the room, but she could not unsee what the mirror had shown her.
Word forms
- Base
- unsee
- Past tense
- unsaw
- Past participle
- unseen
- Present participle
- unseeing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- unsee
- Present continuous
- am/is/are unseeing
- Present perfect
- have/has unseen
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been unseeing
- Past
- unsaw
- Past continuous
- was/were unseeing
- Past perfect
- had unseen
- Past perfect continuous
- had been unseeing
- Future
- will unsee
- Future continuous
- will be unseeing
- Future perfect
- will have unseen
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been unseeing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Transitive verb: unsees, unsaw, unseen, unseeing; future will unsee. Irregular forms verified in Collins. Modern usage overwhelmingly favors cannot/can’t unsee, wish one could unsee, or impossible to unsee; do not force rare inflections into prose. Register: informal. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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