unconstitutional
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unconstitutional
First recorded in 1735–45; un- 1 + constitutional
Explanation
When someone protests an action on the part of the government by saying, "That's vile! That's wrong! That's downright unconstitutional!," they're saying that the action violates the tenets of the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Constitution is our nation's founding document, laying out a structure for the executive, judicial, and legislative powers, and assigning to people specific rights, such privacy, free speech, and voting. Violations of the Constitution are the highest forms of illegality in our nation, though famously hard to nail down.
Vocabulary lists containing unconstitutional
Twelve Days in May
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Lincoln Inaugural Address (March 1861)
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Words with 15 or More Letters, List 1
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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.
Gen. Rob Bonta sued the Sheriff’s Department over what he called “unsafe and unconstitutional conditions” inside county lockups.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2026
On Tuesday, another group of New York City homeowners filed a complaint that also alleges the tax is unconstitutional.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
Wiles revealed that she doesn’t have “these seminal moments where you have to go in and tell the president what he wants to do is unconstitutional or will cost lives. I don’t have that.”
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
But he backs attempts to declare the Indemnity Act unconstitutional "to cleanse us of that past".
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Supreme Court ruled the death penalty for nonhomicides unconstitutional and international law strongly disfavors the practice.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
