Uncooked means not prepared by heat: raw, not heated, not made ready to eat by cooking. When food is uncooked, it hasn't been baked, boiled, fried, grilled, or heated in any way.

Some foods are meant to be eaten uncooked. Fresh apples, carrots, and lettuce are perfectly good uncooked. Sushi often includes uncooked fish that's been carefully prepared to be safe to eat raw. But many foods must be cooked before eating: uncooked chicken or pork can make you sick, uncooked beans are hard and indigestible, and uncooked pasta is too hard to chew.

The word can describe ingredients (uncooked rice, uncooked eggs) or dishes that haven't been prepared yet (uncooked pizza dough waiting to go in the oven). When a recipe says to add something to a pot of uncooked pasta, it means the dry, hard noodles before they've been boiled.

In another sense, uncooked can describe ideas or plans that aren't fully developed yet, like when someone presents an uncooked scheme that needs more thought before it can actually work.