Not yet checked, proved, or officially backed up. You use it about news, reports, numbers, and rumours that are going around but which no responsible source has verified: *unconfirmed reports*, *unconfirmed rumours*, *the death toll is unconfirmed*, *these figures remain unconfirmed*. This word is journalism's careful hedge. When a reporter says *there are unconfirmed reports of an explosion*, they are telling you two things at once: something may have happened, and please do not fully believe me yet. It does not mean false — that is *untrue* or *denied* — it means the checking has not finished. A thing can be unconfirmed and turn out perfectly true. That gap is the whole point of the word. Outside news it works anywhere something is waiting on official word: *my booking is still unconfirmed*, *the date is unconfirmed*, *an unconfirmed appointment*. There is also a religious use — a person who has not gone through the Christian ceremony of confirmation — but a learner will meet the news sense far, far more often.