unconstitutional
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unconstitutional
First recorded in 1735–45; un- 1 + constitutional
Explanation
When someone protests an action on the part of the government by saying, "That's vile! That's wrong! That's downright unconstitutional!," they're saying that the action violates the tenets of the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Constitution is our nation's founding document, laying out a structure for the executive, judicial, and legislative powers, and assigning to people specific rights, such privacy, free speech, and voting. Violations of the Constitution are the highest forms of illegality in our nation, though famously hard to nail down.
Vocabulary lists containing unconstitutional
Twelve Days in May
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Lincoln Inaugural Address (March 1861)
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Words with 15 or More Letters, List 1
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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.
That position is at the core of the legal case brought by Brosseau, which argues that current laws are exclusionary to those with mental illness and therefore unconstitutional.
From BBC • May 15, 2026
By claiming that “it is unconstitutional for biological parents to transfer their parental rights,” Jay told me, Uthmeier’s argument “sweeps in” adoption consents, too.
From Slate • May 13, 2026
The state law was not directly at issue in the Supreme Court ruling, but Hasen argues the court’s reasoning could provide new legal grounds to challenge the state law as potentially unconstitutional.
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026
Amodei has also clashed with the Trump administration after the Pentagon designated Anthropic a supply chain risk earlier this year, a move Anthropic said amounted to unconstitutional retaliation for the company's advocacy on AI safety.
From Barron's • May 6, 2026
Black people had boycotted the city bus system there for an entire year, and the Supreme Court had ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional, forcing the city to change its laws.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
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.
