unsound
adjective
Simple meaning
Not in good condition.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnsowndSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ənˈsaʊnd
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 in good condition; damaged or decayed
Not sound financially
Not sound, particularly
Not whole, not solid, defective.
ukespecially of people
Not good, unreliable.
especially of equestrianism
Infirm, diseased.
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 in good condition; damaged or decayed
Used this way, unsound is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- 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 unsound
- “An unsound foundation.”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.