unsuitable
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived 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.
Salty water could be preventing the recovery of one of the UK's rarest amphibians by making former breeding sites unsuitable for their survival, a study has concluded.
From BBC • May 31, 2026
Tourists can face infectious diseases, accidents, injuries, violence, unsafe food or water, and other risks linked to poor planning or unsuitable travel choices.
From Science Daily • May 4, 2026
Cryptocurrencies are fundamentally unsuitable for retirement accounts due to extreme volatility and the fact that they lack concrete underlying value.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026
We were only legally able to limit the list as a result of Ms. Roth’s office raising whether some locations might be unsuitable.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026
In general, her whole attitude suggested to me that she was quite unsuitable for employment at Darlington Hall.
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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.
