unreliable
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- unreliability noun
- unreliableness noun
- unreliably adverb
Etymology
Origin of unreliable
Explanation
Someone unreliable can't be trusted to do something. Things can be unreliable too, like a bike with a wobbly wheel. The word "rely" is a clue to what unreliable means. When you can rely on something, you can count in it — it's reliable. On the other hand, you'd better not count on an unreliable person. People can be unreliable because they're dishonest, always late, bad at their job, or just inconsistent. Things can be unreliable because they're broken or old. A train schedule can be unreliable if the trains are never on time. Unfortunately, there's a lot of stuff in life that's unreliable, so be careful.
Vocabulary lists containing unreliable
STAAR English I: Elements of Literature
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STAAR English II: Elements of Literature 1
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Point of View
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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.
His second day of testimony in federal court in Oakland, California grew testy at times, as OpenAI's lawyers sought to portray the Tesla tycoon as an unreliable narrator of the company's history.
From Barron's • Apr. 29, 2026
But at the one we visited in Holguín, portions had gotten smaller and less varied, and staff were forced to scavenge for wood to cook with, due to gas shortages and unreliable electricity.
From Salon • Apr. 11, 2026
If the Strait of Hormuz becomes unreliable, energy can be sourced from the U.S. or transported via Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 9, 2026
While these systems are powerful, they consume large amounts of energy and can still produce unreliable results.
From Science Daily • Apr. 5, 2026
And without the fact, the new notion that knowledge is grounded in evidence, not authority, might have received only the sort of inconsistent and unreliable endorsement that we have seen it receiving from della Porta.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
