Wordology, Unexplored vs. Uncharted

These two words are often used interchangeably, but do not mean the same thing. Uncharted means unmapped. For example, Canada, as recently as 1916 was about 25 percent still uncharted.


Unexplored means a geographic area where no one has explored or investigated and published their findings. There are considerable areas of the jungles in Brazil, Indonesia, and desert areas such as the Sahara, the Namib desert, central Australia, and desolate cold areas such as Siberia, northern Canada, Greenland, Antarctica, remote areas in central Asia, and central Africa that are still essentially unexplored. As recently as 2011, British researchers were using Google Earth to look around Africa when they noticed a patch of forest on and around Mozambique's Mount Mabu that they never knew existed. It was uncharted and unexplored.