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unencumbered

adjective
un·​en·​cum·​bered | \ ˌən-in-ˈkəm-bərd How to pronounce unencumbered (audio) \

Definition of unencumbered

: free of encumbrance

Examples of unencumbered in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

 Each turn promises either the pleasure of unencumbered travel, or the thrill of unexpected flight. — Alexander B. Joy, The Atlantic, "Candy Land Was Invented for Polio Wards," 28 July 2019 Nobody was fired by the president, nothing was curtailed and the investigation continued unencumbered for 22 long months. — NBC News, "Full transcript: Mueller testimony before House Judiciary, Intelligence committees," 25 July 2019 Lock’s training camp participation eliminates a potentially harmful distraction and allows his football development to continue unencumbered. — Kyle Fredrickson, The Denver Post, "Why Drew Lock never intended to miss Broncos training camp practices," 18 July 2019 Logan runs around Crown King's small playground, unencumbered. — Lily Altavena, azcentral, "Squeezed by declining enrollment, Arizona's rural schools are suffering," 12 June 2019 The Labor Cabinet's office of the inspector general could proceed unencumbered with its investigation of the sickouts, Reeves said. — Mandy Mclaren, The Courier-Journal, "Andy Beshear scores win in lawsuit over Bevin administration's teacher-sickout inquiry," 27 June 2019 The scarier idea, though, is that there are more Duntsches running around, unencumbered by lawsuits and a dogged reporter. — Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, "These Podcasts Will Satisfy Your Craving For Making A Murderer," 15 June 2019 So, despite Helmchen’s gradations of touch, tone and color, his swift, clean interpretations suggested the pieces had been pretty much unencumbered by extramusical associations. — Alan Artner, chicagotribune.com, "German pianist Martin Helmchen closes Piano Series with Orchestra Hall recital," 11 June 2018 South Korean troops examining now-empty guard posts north of the border were allowed unencumbered access to the installations by North Korean soldiers, a presidential spokesman said. — Andrew Jeong, WSJ, "Kim Jong Un’s Seoul Trip on Ice as Korean Detente Cools," 12 Dec. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'unencumbered.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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First Known Use of unencumbered

1722, in the meaning defined above

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More Definitions for unencumbered

unencumbered

adjective

Financial Definition of unencumbered

What It Is

An encumbrance is a limitation on the ownership of a property. When an asset is unencumbered, there are no limitations on its ownership.

How It Works

To understand what unencumbered means, it's important to understand how encumbrances work. In the real estate world, an encumbrance is similar to a lien. The bond world also includes encumbrances. For instance, let’s consider a $100 million bond issue by Company XYZ. If Company XYZ is willing to pledge $100 million of its assets to the bondholders (that is, let the bondholders place liens on specific assets that they may seize in the event of default), giving them a little extra assurance that they will be paid on time, then the bonds would be considered securitized or asset-backed, because the assets have $100 million of encumbrances on them.

Why It Matters

Encumbrances provide security to lenders and bond investors in the case of bankruptcy or default. For example, it is important to note that debentures do not have encumbrances — that is, they are not secured by specific pieces of property or collateral and they do have a general claim on the assets and earnings of the issuer. Therefore, if the issuer were to liquidate, the holders of the debenture bonds have a claim on any assets not specifically pledged to secure other debt. Unencumbered assets can therefore help reduce the risk of debt if they become encumbered.

Companies that are extremely creditworthy often have no reason to encumber specific assets in order to sell a bond issue because they’ll still pay relatively low interest rates. (This is why debentures, which do not have encumbered assets attached, can sometimes sell for more than bonds with encumbrances from less creditworthy issuers.) Sometimes issuers also want to leave their assets unencumbered in order to make future financings possible.

Source: Investing Answers

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