unsustainable
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Derived 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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Organisms and Environments 1: The Environment
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myPerspectives 7.4
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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.
Last month, state cybersecurity chiefs warned lawmakers that AI-enabled discovery tools create unsustainable pressure on state networks as patching windows shrink to near zero.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 10, 2026
Teachers in Northern Ireland are to vote on whether to take industrial action over what they say is their "unsustainable" workload.
From BBC • Jun. 2, 2026
She quickly acknowledged that the cost of hotel and motel rooms was financially unsustainable and would require the city to purchase its own temporary housing facilities.
From Los Angeles Times • May 27, 2026
On Wednesday, Chris Conway acknowledged cuts to Translink services would be "very disappointing and concerning" for passengers, but said the measures were to "protect Translink from a financially unsustainable position".
From BBC • May 24, 2026
In any society built on institutionalized racism, race-mixing doesn’t merely challenge the system as unjust, it reveals the system as unsustainable and incoherent.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
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.
