Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not housed or sheltered as by a house: having no house or home. Deprived of or driven from a house, home, roof, or shelter.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Driven from a house; deprived of shelter.
  • adjective Not provided with a house or shelter; houseless; homeless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of unhouse.
  • adjective driven from one's home
  • adjective homeless
  • adjective not located within a housing

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ house

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- + house + -ed

Support

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Examples

Comments

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  • Does the term unhoused make someone sound less homeless? It's as though a more politically- correct word is supposed to make life sound nicer for people without permanent housing.


    A trendier term isn't going to create fewer homeless people.

    May 11, 2023

  • vendingmachine Your annoyance at the term feels misguided. Ultimately the problem is the problem, not the word. Yes, unhoused can be used by people as a self-righteous identifier to appear more empathetic while not doing anything (like correcting someone telling their story, instead of listening to the message) but adding a new term to the mix can help refresh the conversation and is not inherently worthless or harmful.

    May 17, 2023

  • I wouldn't classify my dislike for the word as an annoyance. I see it as more of an attempt to soften the harsh reality of homelessness. Have you ever heard a homeless person refer to themselves as unhoused? I haven't. I did not call the word worthless or harmful. You read into my comment assumptions that I did not make.

    From the ages of 7-13, I was "sexually molested" by a non-family member. I had a miscarriage at age 12. I could keep using softer terms, so as not to offend the tender sensibilities of those who don't want to hear words like rape, but then I would be discounting my serial traumas.

    May 22, 2023