unavailable
Britishadjective
Explanation
If you can't meet your friend for dinner on Tuesday because you have other plans, you are unavailable. If the shoes you want have been sold out, they are unavailable. Unavailable means not accessible. If you avail yourself of something, you use it or take advantage of it. You might avail yourself of discount tickets to the theater provided by your school. If the tickets are all sold out, they are unavailable to you. In the context of dating, if someone is unavailable, he or she is already in a steady relationship or married. Someone emotionally unavailable is not open to sharing their feelings.
Vocabulary lists containing unavailable
Nobody's Home: Synonyms For "Absent"
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Absent
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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.
It also offers a bit of blockbuster fan service unavailable to Homer: Spider-Man and Jason Bourne fighting bad guys side by side.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Sauropods were plant eaters, so rising onto their hind legs may have allowed them to reach vegetation high in trees that was unavailable to shorter animals.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026
He also courted strong and straight — and unavailable — alpha men to whom he appeared happy to play the beta role of political ingénue.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026
They can align government, industry and society toward a single technological objective through instruments that are unavailable and undesirable in a democracy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
How am I to make progress with the investigation if my partner is unavailable?
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
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.
