unfrozen

Unfrozen is an adjective describing something that is not frozen, either because its temperature is above the freezing point or because a frozen item has thawed. In science and everyday language, unfrozen substances are not in a solid ice form; common examples include unfrozen water, steam, or thawed foods after freezing.

In everyday usage, unfrozen is often used as a broad contrast to frozen, while thawed is the more common term specifically for food and other substances that have passed from solid to liquid after freezing.

In legal and financial contexts, unfrozen can describe assets that have been released from a freeze order or sanctions. For example, funds or accounts may be unfrozen by court decision or by administrative action, restoring access to assets.

Etymology: unfrozen is formed from the negating prefix un- and the adjective frozen; the corresponding verb is unfreeze. While widely understood, unfrozen is less common in everyday speech than thawed when referring to edible items.

In physics and engineering, unfrozen can describe a state transition from solid to liquid upon heating, or more generally any material that is not in a frozen state. The term is relatively simple and is typically clarified by context to avoid ambiguity between everyday usage and technical meaning.