inconvenient
[in-kuhn-veen-yuhnt]
- not easily accessible or at hand: The phone is in an inconvenient place.
- inopportune; untimely: an inconvenient time for a visit.
- not suiting one's needs or purposes: The house has an inconvenient floor plan.
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Origin of inconvenient
1325–75; Middle English < Latin inconvenient- (stem of inconveniēns) not suiting. See in-3, convenient
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
troublesome, embarrassing, awkward, unwieldy, disturbing, cumbersome, annoying, tiresome, difficult, detrimental, disadvantageous, inexpedient, inopportune, pestiferous, prejudicial, remote, unmanageable, unseasonable, unsuitable, untimelyExamples from the Web for inconvenient
Contemporary Examples
It is also true—and this is inconvenient—that the US had not been innocent in the decades leading up to 9/11.
His latest book is An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Now Remembers The Armenians?
It is a horrific and inconvenient truth, but paying ransoms to free hostages invariably worsens the problem in the long-term.
He has struggled to keep his marriage together after confronting some inconvenient truths about himself.
A wine critic friend of mine asked for an interview with the winemaker but was told it was “inconvenient.”
Historical Examples
And though the truth may be inconvenient, it's wonderfully sweet!
The Bacillus of BeautyHarriet Stark
Work, he had always asserted, was the cure for inconvenient emotions.
The Incomplete AmoristE. Nesbit
The lodgings are inconvenient for us, while both together, and while she refuses to marry.
Clarissa, Volume 3 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
But, as I told you in my former, the lodgings are inconvenient.
Clarissa, Volume 3 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
But I fear I have chosen an inconvenient time for my visit.'
Henry DunbarM. E. Braddon
inconvenient
- not convenient; troublesome, awkward, or difficult
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for inconvenient
adj.
late 14c., "injurious, dangerous," from Old French inconvénient (13c.), from Latin inconvenientem (nominative inconveniens) "unsuitable, not accordant, dissimilar," from in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + convenientem (see convenient). In early 15c., "inappropriate, unbecoming, unnatural;" also, of an accused person, "unlikely as a culprit, innocent." Sense of "troublesome, awkward" first recorded 1650s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper