ineligible
Americanadjective
-
not eligible; not permitted or suitable.
Employees are ineligible in this contest.
- Synonyms:
- unsuitable
-
legally disqualified to hold an office.
-
legally disqualified to function as a juror, voter, witness, etc., or to become the recipient of a privilege.
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ineligible
Explanation
To be ineligible is to not qualify for something. When you're eligible for something — like a contest — you are allowed to enter. Being ineligible is the opposite; it means that you can't enter or participate in something. After a certain age, children are ineligible for playing Little League baseball. Students below a certain grade point average are ineligible for scholarships. People born outside the United States are ineligible to run for President. If you want to know who's eligible and ineligible for something, check the rules or laws.
Vocabulary lists containing ineligible
Set, Hut! Football Vocabulary
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American Football, 3rd Quarter
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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.
Two of the Green candidates who had to quit - James Tilden in Hackney Central ward and Muhammad Naser in Camden's Regent's Park ward - are teachers and therefore ineligible.
From BBC • May 22, 2026
If he remains ineligible for college football, Sorsby intends to declare for this summer’s NFL supplemental draft.
From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2026
The IRS conducted manual audits on about 5,100 of these returns and found that 90% were ineligible for the EITC.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 13, 2026
A second flaw was that workers who contributed and then left the state to work or retire elsewhere would have been ineligible for benefits.
From MarketWatch • May 13, 2026
Arthur Dula, an American lawyer who specializes in laws governing international space-related activities, stated that such discrimination should make Russia's Federal Space Agency ineligible for any more funding from the United States.
From "Women in Space" by Karen Bush Gibson
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.
