unsustainable
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unsustainable
1670–80; un- 1 + sustainable ( def. )
Explanation
If something is unsustainable, there's just no way to keep doing it at the same rate or in the same way. You've been able to keep your new puppy from whining by petting her all night long, but that's unsustainable. When you can bear something, or continue it, it's sustainable, from the Latin root sustinere, "bear or endure." Unsustainable things can't go on, like unsustainable economic growth that's bound to level out or drop eventually, or an unsustainable expectation that you will always have a perfect grade point average. When it comes to the environment, practices that cause long-term harm or deplete resources are also unsustainable: "Ending unsustainable fishing practices successfully revived the salmon population."
Vocabulary lists containing unsustainable
Power Prefix: un-
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: un-
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Organisms and Environments 1: The Environment
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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 experiencing a sustained selloff in previous weeks over concerns of overspending and unsustainable debt levels, tech stocks moved higher on Tuesday as investors regained some confidence in the sustainability of AI spending.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026
Stansbury noted that Johnson from the start shared his and the board’s goals of upgrading the network infrastructure and eliminating an unsustainable dividend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
With government oversight of supply chains sometimes lacking, industry-led certification programs have sought to fill the gap and root out unsustainable, unethical or illegal practices.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Tinubu has said the reforms averted an even greater crisis as the subsidy grew fiscally unsustainable.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
Thus language-games do not simply succeed, progress, pay, or prove their worth; they can also become unsustainable if the facts change.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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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.
