unsuitable
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unsuitable
Explanation
Something that's unsuitable doesn't work well or is out of place. A kitchen knife is unsuitable for sawing firewood. You can use the adjective unsuitable to describe something that isn't well suited for a use: flip flops are unsuitable shoes to wear in a blizzard. It's also a good word for something that's disappointing or undesirable: "No, that guy in the clown suit would be a completely unsuitable boyfriend for me." At the root of unsuitable is the meaning of suit, "be agreeable or convenient," that's thought to come from "provide a suit of clothes."
Vocabulary lists containing unsuitable
"The Bet" by Anton Chekhov
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Stuart Little
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Way Off: Synonyms for "Wrong"
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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.
Millions of books were eventually collected, but many were unsuitable for the purpose.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
The charge sheet said the migrants had been put to sea from the French coast in a boat "that was of poor quality, uncertified, unsuitable for navigation at sea, overloaded, and without correct life jackets".
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
This is mainly due to concerns about people offering unsuitable foods and birds becoming dependent on humans.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026
Those limitations, combined with rapamycin's potential toxicity and the fact that the findings come from animal experiments, make the drug unsuitable for widespread use in humans.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026
As for livestock, Eurasian sheep made it possible to extend food production to arid areas of Australia unsuitable for agriculture, and Eurasian cattle joined crops in moister areas.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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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.
