unenforceable
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
If people can't be made to comply with a rule or law, it's unenforceable. You can ask people not to grab greedily at the candy falling from a piñata, but your request is basically unenforceable! If something is unenforceable, there's no reasonable way to enforce it, or make absolutely sure it's being obeyed or followed. A law that bans daydreaming would, for example, be completely unenforceable. Contracts are also unenforceable if they demand something of the signer that's not legal, like an employment contract that says you have to work 12 hours with no break.
Vocabulary lists containing unenforceable
List 10
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Vocabulary from Readings 1, Unit 3
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"Don't ban peanuts at school"
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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.
After Tuesday, “these kinds of regulations become unenforceable if the healthcare provider risks harming patients with their speech.”
From Slate • Mar. 31, 2026
The ban was not backed by a formal law, which made it weak and potentially unenforceable, said Farai Maguwu, director of the mining watchdog Centre for Natural Resource Governance.
From Barron's • Mar. 26, 2026
The Transportation Department kicked off the 2025 holiday travel season with an admittedly unenforceable civility campaign aimed at bringing back “courtesy and class to air travel.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 14, 2026
Contracts are unenforceable and production leaks into black markets.
From MarketWatch • Jan. 8, 2026
We then disembodied plaintiffs’ claims in judicially manageable or judicially enforceable terms, unenforceable without more lawyers.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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.
