unqualified
adjective
Simple meaning
Legally not qualified or sufficient.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnkwahlihfydSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ənkˈwɑlɪfaɪd
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
Legally not qualified or sufficient
“A wife is usually considered unqualified to testify against her husband.”
Not qualified: ineligible; unfit for a position or task.
Not meeting the proper standards and requirements and training
Not limited or restricted
Not elaborated upon; undescribed; unrestricted.
Outright; thorough; utter; unhampered.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Legally not qualified or sufficient
Used this way, unqualified is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
“A wife is usually considered unqualified to testify against her husband.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Natural pattern: unqualified to …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use unqualified
- “A wife is usually considered unqualified to testify against her husband.”adjective
- “An unqualified denial.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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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.