unwinnable
Britishadjective
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not able to be won or achieved
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(of a seat in an election) not able to be taken from the incumbent or the incumbent's party
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.
“The public held him responsible for having plunged Japan into the ‘misery’ of an unwinnable war,” Mr. Mauch writes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
Repeating history, rocking the Ravine, winning the unwinnable, Freddie Freeman has done it again for the Dodgers, knocking a baseball for a second consecutive October into probably a second consecutive championship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2025
People thought that case was unwinnable, and we won, and we won in a big way.
From Slate ● Oct. 18, 2025
“It was unwinnable from the beginning,” said Martin Stefen, a 78-year-old Republican who lives in Carson City, Nevada.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 17, 2023
It has one of the highest Indigenous populations in Australia, but from the start of the campaign it's been labelled as an unwinnable state.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2023
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.
