unproductive
adjective
Simple meaning
Not producing or capable of producing.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnpruhduhktivSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ənpɹəˈdʌktɪv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Not producing or capable of producing
“Elimination of high-cost or unproductive industries.”
Not productive; useless; fruitless.
linguisticsof affixesmechanisms of word formationetc
No longer used to produce new words.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Not producing or capable of producing
Used this way, unproductive is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Elimination of high-cost or unproductive industries.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use unproductive
- “Elimination of high-cost or unproductive industries.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: not producing or capable of producing
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.