unavailable
Britishadjective
Explanation
If you can't meet your friend for dinner on Tuesday because you have other plans, you are unavailable. If the shoes you want have been sold out, they are unavailable. Unavailable means not accessible. If you avail yourself of something, you use it or take advantage of it. You might avail yourself of discount tickets to the theater provided by your school. If the tickets are all sold out, they are unavailable to you. In the context of dating, if someone is unavailable, he or she is already in a steady relationship or married. Someone emotionally unavailable is not open to sharing their feelings.
Vocabulary lists containing unavailable
Nobody's Home: Synonyms For "Absent"
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Absent
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un-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"Fuel is unavailable, there are huge queues everywhere," he told AFP from his motionless Toyota sedan after a one-and-a-half hour drive from the capital Ulaanbaatar.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
The prime minister had made himself unavailable to avoid the subject.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Satellites near Earth commonly rely on GPS for navigation, but those signals may be weak, unreliable, or unavailable around the Moon and in deep space.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
The first minister is on leave until the end of the week and was unavailable for interviews ahead of the completion of 100 days in government.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
LightningGirl: I will be unavailable for the Saturday night math chat.
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
