unaffordable

American  

[uhn-uh-fawrd-uh-buhl] / ʌn əˈfɔrd ə bəl /

adjective

1. too high in price to afford.

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Explanation

If something is unaffordable, it's too expensive. A house that costs millions of dollars is unaffordable for almost everyone. This adjective often describes things that cost too much money for the average person, like unaffordable rents in a particular city or unaffordable health care. When you can afford something, it's within financial reach; you can manage to purchase it. Unaffordable things are priced too high for your budget or bank account, like those ultra-rare sneakers you covet.

Example Sentences

India supplies more than half of Africa's generic medicines, and cheaper semaglutide could become a lifeline for countries where obesity is rising rapidly but treatment remains unaffordable.

From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026

Plaid Cymru said it acted in recent budget negotiations with the Welsh government to "prevent unaffordable council tax rises" in 2026-27 by securing a bigger uplift for local authorities' budgets.

From BBC • Mar. 15, 2026

AI apps are often offered cheaply to gain market share, he said, but companies could raise prices once they are established, making the technology unaffordable, Nageswaran said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026

And yet, that didn’t actually address the concerns that many Detroiters had, which was that housing was unaffordable, and that access to high-quality housing was incredibly limited.

From Salon • Mar. 6, 2026

The January price liberalization and a blossoming of private vendors filled shelves across the country with previously scarce food items and consumer goods, but wages lagged behind inflation, making such goods unaffordable for many consumers.

From The 1993 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency