unethical
Americanadjective
-
lacking moral principles; unwilling to adhere to proper rules of conduct.
-
not in accord with the standards of a profession.
She treated patients outside the area of her training, and the appropriate medical organization punished her unethical behavior.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- unethicality noun
- unethically adverb
- unethicalness noun
Etymology
Origin of unethical
Compare meaning
How does unethical compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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.
It would be just as unethical for a therapist to use treatment to pressure someone into being LGBTQ+ as it is to use treatment to coerce someone out of being such an identity.
From Slate • Mar. 11, 2026
We thought flopping and foul-baiting made for unethical hoops, but those are but basketball misdemeanors; Adebayo’s big night was felonious.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 11, 2026
That’s because recruiting patients with a rare and debilitating disease for a placebo trial can be difficult and unethical.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 7, 2026
Some campaigners have said it is unethical and could harm children.
From BBC • Feb. 16, 2026
Later that year, a Harvard anesthesiologist named Henry Beecher published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that Southam’s research was only one of hundreds of similarly unethical studies.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
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.
