unattainable
Britishadjective
Explanation
Something unattainable is out of reach — you can't attain it or achieve it. Unfortunately, a lot of things in life are unattainable. For most of us, making a billion dollars is unattainable. Marrying a famous movie star is probably also unattainable. Flying to the moon in a private space yacht is totally unattainable. If something is unattainable, then you just can't get it. In life, it's not always easy to see what's unattainable and what's attainable, which can cause a lot of frustration.
Vocabulary lists containing unattainable
Power Prefix: un-
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "U"
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: un-
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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.
Jamie Dimon believes the American dream is becoming unattainable, and he is getting serious about trying to revive it.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 31, 2026
Gen Z feels prices are high and housing unattainable.
From Barron's • Mar. 14, 2026
Her sister once wrote that her “aim was high, the ideal unattainable . . . too high to attain to the fruition of the soul and be satisfied.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026
Proponents of AI regulation often cite neutral AI as a goal, but true neutrality is often unattainable.
From Salon • Jan. 3, 2026
These were the obligatory so-called Studienreisen, or study tours, their goal being the students’ acquisition of the necessary grounding in “the modern developments in Physics” that was simply unattainable in the United States.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
