unincorporated
adj.not officially registered as a separate legal business. It also describes a place that is not part of any city or town.
adj.not officially registered as a legal entity or not part of any incorporated municipality. Often used to describe small businesses or rural areas.
“The small shop is an unincorporated business.”
“Living in an unincorporated area means you do not have access to the same public services as those in the city.”
“While the firm operated as an unincorporated partnership for several years, it eventually decided to register as a limited liability company to protect its assets from potential lawsuits.”
“Adolescent friends who later built formal, incorporated companies—registered businesses with a legal identity separate from their owners—predicted a person's entry into both incorporated and unincorporated self-employment.”
“The Northern Mariana Islands is a self-governing commonwealth of the United States, while Guam is an unincorporated territory of the US.”
From un- + incorporated.
See unincorporate.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.