unsustainable

[uhn-suh-stey-nuh-buhl]

adjective

1. not sustainable; not to be supported, maintained, upheld, or corroborated.

Other Word Forms

• unsustainably adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of unsustainable¹

1670–80; un- ¹ + sustainable ( def. )

Example Sentences

This is an unsustainable system that feeds billions of taxpayer dollars to insurance companies.

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Republican lawmakers have warned of unsustainable government spending.

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Student loans became the easy “solution” to skyrocketing tuition, but they masked the real problem of unsustainable pricing.

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But don’t expect a newly elected legislature to solve France’s deeper crises, which trace to a budget bloated with unsustainable spending that sucks life out of an anemic economy.

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Lee noted the stock has surged more than 50% since the first of those deals was announced in August, adding that the shares’ recent rerating was “unsustainable.”

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Related Words

• unsuitable 
• untenable