unless

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ənˈlɛs/, /ʌnˈlɛs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛs

Etymology

onlesse, from on lesse, from on a less condition (on became un-)

Alternative forms

• unlesse (obsolete)

Conjunction

unless

1. Except on a specified condition; if not.

   I’m leaving unless I get a pay rise.

   • 1971, Dr. Seuss, The Lorax:

     Unless someone like you...cares a whole awful lot...nothing is going to get better...It's not.

   • 1839, Denison Olmsted, A Compendium of Astronomy Page 95

     Secondly, When a body is once in motion it will continue to move forever, unless something stops it. When a ball is struck on the surface of the earth, the friction of the earth and the resistance of the air soon stop its motion.

Antonyms

• (except on a condition): if

Derived terms

• precisely unless
• unlesss
• unless and until, until and unless

Translations

except on a specified condition

• Afrikaans: please add this translation if you can
• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Amharic: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: الا (’illa), إلا إذا (ar) (illa idha)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Azeri: please add this translation if you can
• Bashkir: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: please add this translation if you can
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: освен ако (bg) (osven ako)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: a menys que (ca), llevat que (ca), tret que (ca), fora que (ca)
• Cherokee: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 除非 (cmn) (chúfēi)

• Czech: dokud ne (cs)
• Danish: medmindre (da), undtagen (da)
• Dutch: tenzij (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: ellei (fi), jollei (fi)
• French: à moins que (fr)
• Georgian: თუ არ (ka) (t’u ar)
• German: wenn nicht (de), es sei denn (de)
• Greek: εκτός αν (el) (ektós an), παρά μόνο αν (el) (pará móno an)
• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: (formally) אלמלא (he) (Ilmalé)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: hacsak nem (hu), kivéve ha (hu)
• Icelandic: nema (is)
• Indonesian: kecuali (id)

• Irish: mura (ga)
• Italian: a meno che (it), se non (it)
• Japanese: もし...でなければ (moshi...de nakereba)
• Khmer: លុះត្រាតែ (km) (luh traa tae)
• Korean: ...이 아니면 (...i animyeon)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: مه‌گه‌ر

• Latin: nisi (la)
• Malay: melainkan (ms)
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Maltese: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: please add this translation if you can
• Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: hvis ikke (no)
• Novial: please add this translation if you can
• Occitan: please add this translation if you can
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: مگر اینکه (fa) (magar inke)
• Polish: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: a menos que (pt), a não ser que (pt)
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: если не (ru) (jésli ne), разве что (ru) (razve čto)
• Serbo-Croatian: osim ako (sh), ukoliko ne (sh), ako ne (sh)
• Spanish: a menos que (es)
• Swedish: såvida ej (sv)
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: తప్ప (te) (tappa)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: якщо не (uk) (yákshcho ne)
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: oni (cy)
• Yiddish: please add this translation if you can

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: distance · thinking · beginning · #628: unless · seeing · won't · plain