inconvenient
Americanadjective
-
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.
- Synonyms:
- bothersome, awkward, annoying
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of inconvenient
1325–75; Middle English < Latin inconvenient- (stem of inconveniēns ) not suiting. See in- 3, convenient
Explanation
Inconvenient things are difficult or annoying to do. If someone asks you to help move a couch on a Saturday when you have tickets to a game, that's an inconvenient request. If you have to go to the bathroom very badly just as a test is starting, that's inconvenient. If the movie projector breaks in the middle of a movie, that's inconvenient. Other times, things are inconvenient just because they're kind of a pain. It’s inconvenient of your mom to ask you to do chores just as you're ready to go out with friends. Inconvenient things get in the way of what we really want to do.
Vocabulary lists containing inconvenient
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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.
"Independence carries a price, and the machinery of the Court can be turned against its own officeholders whenever their independence becomes inconvenient," they said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
For Platner, people with inconvenient needs and agency simply dropped out of sight.
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2026
The second was a little more emotionally inconvenient.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
The calming locales both complement and contradict the plot’s revelations, which are hardly bombshells but do speak to how well-to-do families labor to shove inconvenient skeletons into the closet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Despite these inconvenient truths, though, we can press on.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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.
