"unable" meaning in English

See unable in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ʌnˈeɪbəl/ Audio: en-us-unable.ogg [US] Forms: unable [positive], – [comparative], – [superlative]
Etymology: un- + able Etymology templates: {{ety-prefix|un|able}} un- + able Head templates: {{adj}} [POS TABLE]
  1. When sosmeone or something is unable to do something, it cannot be done; it is not able to do it.
    Sense id: simple-unable-en-adj-ZkcAQa-s
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Categories (other): Terms prefixed with un-
{
  "categories": [
    {
      "kind": "other",
      "name": "Terms prefixed with un-",
      "parents": [],
      "source": "w"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "un",
        "2": "able"
      },
      "expansion": "un- + able",
      "name": "ety-prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "un- + able",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "unable",
      "tags": [
        "positive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "–",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "–",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "able"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I am unable to climb that mountain because I am too weak."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "When sosmeone or something is unable to do something, it cannot be done; it is not able to do it."
      ],
      "id": "simple-unable-en-adj-ZkcAQa-s"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ʌnˈeɪbəl/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-unable.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "unable"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "Terms prefixed with un-"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "un",
        "2": "able"
      },
      "expansion": "un- + able",
      "name": "ety-prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "un- + able",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "unable",
      "tags": [
        "positive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "–",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "–",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "able"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I am unable to climb that mountain because I am too weak."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "When sosmeone or something is unable to do something, it cannot be done; it is not able to do it."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ʌnˈeɪbəl/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-unable.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "unable"
}

Download raw JSONL data for unable meaning in English (0.8kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-13 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (9c82c1c and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.