unfair

A2 Topic:Ethics & Social Judgment

US /ʌnˈfɛɚ/ UK /ʌnˈfɛə(ɹ)/ See IPA manual

Freq #4324

Meanings

1

adj
Not fair; not treating people equally or in a just way.

It was unfair for the boss to give larger bonuses to his friends.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · not fair; not treating... unjustinequitable

Word family

Forms unfairerunfairest

Related forms biased cheating discriminatory dishonest dishonorable disproportionate excessive foul invidious partial prejudiced underhanded

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

unfair advantage
A benefit that gives someone an undeserved or improper edge over others.

Adjective + noun

Proverbs (1)

See all

Life is unfair

Etymology

From Middle English unfair (“unattractive, unseemly”), from Old English unfæġer (“ugly”), equivalent to un- + fair.

unfair Middle English unfæġer Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Ethics & Social Judgment

External links

# unfair

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A2
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ʌnˈfɛɚ/
**IPA (UK):** /ʌnˈfɛə(ɹ)/
**Frequency rank:** 4324

## Meanings
1. Not fair; not treating people equally or in a just way.

## Examples
- It was unfair for the boss to give larger bonuses to his friends.

## Related Forms
- biased
- cheating
- discriminatory
- dishonest
- dishonorable
- disproportionate
- excessive
- foul
- invidious
- partial
- prejudiced
- underhanded

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: unfair
- Root: unfæġer
- Affix: un- - not

## Etymology
From Middle English unfair (“unattractive, unseemly”), from Old English unfæġer (“ugly”), equivalent to un- + fair.

## AI Etymology
Unfair is from Middle English unfair (“unattractive, unseemly”), from Old English unfæġer (“ugly”), equivalent to un- + fair. The historical line also includes Middle English unfair, Old English unfæġer. In present-day use, it can mean not fair; not treating people equally or in a just way.

## Topics
- Ethics & Social Judgment

markdown