unkind
Americanadjective
adjective
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lacking kindness; unsympathetic or cruel
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archaic
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(of weather) unpleasant
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(of soil) hard to cultivate
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Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unkind
Middle English word dating back to 1200–50; see origin at un- 1, kind 1
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.
See Examples For:
It’s the sort of line that doesn’t stand up to an unkind reading.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
"They've said some very unkind things about Britain, and also about the monarchy."
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
England did not want to go through the play-offs but were given an unkind draw in the qualifying groups when they met world champions Spain.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
There’s no denying that as a comedian, he is often unkind.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
Her face was neither kind nor unkind; if a face could look like distilled knowledge, it would be this.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
It’s not at all a serious remark, yet it’s a reflection of Stewart’s regular-guy populism — or, to be unkinder, provincialism.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 30, 2021
“The cuts seem unkinder now than they’ve ever been,” said Jeff Shesol, a Democratic speechwriter.
From New York Times ● Oct. 25, 2014
The new low, low hemline has been officially named the Midi, but many fashionplates have unkinder words for it.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some months later, the women of Walsenburg dealt Mosco an even unkinder cut: they asked him to serve without any salary at all, and. then, when he refused, fired him outright.
From Time Magazine Archive
No one said unkinder things to my face than he did, and yet behind my back I knew that many a time he had made things smoother for me with his parents.
From Dwell Deep or Hilda Thorn's Life Story by Amy Le Feuvre
But for Subaru’s tree-hugging clientele, the unkindest cut has been fuel economy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
I am talking about some of the unkindest cuts, the curious tinkering I have of late experienced with texts of Shakespeare, changes that come across as willful rather than illuminating, silly instead of clever.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 22, 2022
In the unkindest cut of all, these critics say that Glantz has become an unwitting ally of the tobacco industry.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2021
Too old to seize a moment, too active to be rediscovered, he’s been subject over the past two decades to some of the unkindest reviews ever delivered to a talent of his magnitude.
From New York Times ● May 24, 2021
His sorrow, anger and horror were so keen that he was guilty of the unkindest act of his life.
From Fairfax and His Pride by Marie Van Vorst
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.
