unwarranted
Britishadjective
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lacking justification or authorization
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another word for unwarrantable
Explanation
When something is unwarranted it's not called-for under the given circumstances. For example, debating the merits of someone's talent is one thing, but calling them stupid is unwarranted. I thought the applause was unwarranted. After all, all the guy did was stand there and point for two hours. And when that lady started screaming? That was unwarranted, too: all I did was give her a flat. It was an accident! Think of it this way: when the police want to search your home, they have to get a "warrant" — a document that allows them to enter. To go into your home without a warrant would be unwarranted. A warrant is a kind of justification; without that justification, something could be called unwarranted.
Vocabulary lists containing unwarranted
The Devil's Arithmetic
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "U"
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Dwight D. Eisenhower, "The Military-Industrial Complex" (1961)
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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.
If the facilities are federally owned, Zoley replied, there are “more protections from unwarranted litigation that infringes upon the activities of the ICE processing centers.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 7, 2026
Still, plenty of investors cautioned that worries over a famine-to-feast scenario were unwarranted and that just a few confirmed incidents in the area could easily turn the clock back on the flow through the strait.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 25, 2026
The hedge fund Findell Capital Management has an undisclosed stake in the design software maker and is demanding changes, including steps to shed its unwarranted reputation as an artificial-intelligence “loser.”
From Barron's • May 29, 2026
He added that the decision to wait for it to conclude "tacks on five or six years or more", describing it as "an unwarranted delay".
From BBC • May 19, 2026
She was a middle-aged woman, without a trace of flirtatiousness, who walked with a slight shuffle and had lost the unwarranted gaiety that had made her so appealing in her youth.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
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.
