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:
If you do not address your feelings and process them, they will manifest themselves in other ways — an unkind remark or a silent fury.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
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
But no one here is out to humiliate anyone, which is nasty and unkind and not at all the sort of humor Lawrence trades in.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2026
The focal point of his soft, expressive, not unkind face was his mouth, mainly because it was usually at least half open, even while he ate.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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
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
The new low, low hemline has been officially named the Midi, but many fashionplates have unkinder words for it.
From Time Magazine Archive
The second inauguration day was amid the usual March weather in the District of Columbia, like the fickle April in unkinder latitudes: smile and scowl.
From The Lincoln Story Book A Judicious Collection of the Best Stories and Anecdotes of the Great President, Many Appearing Here for the First Time in Book Form by Henry Llewellyn Williams
For the American people to turn their back on them would be the unkindest cut of all.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
Like other prestige dramas' unkindest deaths, it may serve a higher purpose.
From Salon ● Apr. 21, 2025
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
Maybe the unkindest cut came after the relocation vote at the Board of Governors meeting in Dallas.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 2, 2020
And they were generally very severe indeed; or they did not take the book seriously, which, as Claude said, was the unkindest cut of all.
From My Lord Duke by E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
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