unfair

English

Etymology

From Middle English unfair (“unattractive, unseemly”), from Old English unfæġer (“not fair, not beautiful, foul, ugly, horrid”), equivalent to un- +‎ fair.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌnˈfɛə(ɹ)/, [ɐnˈfɛə(ɹ)], /ʌnˈfɛː(ɹ)/, [ɐnˈfɛː(ɹ)]
• IPA^(key): /ʌnˈfɛɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɛə(r)

Adjective

unfair (comparative unfairer, superlative unfairest)

1. (rare or archaic) not beautiful; uncomely; unattractive
2. (archaic or obsolete) sorrowful; sad
3. (archaic) unseemly; disgraceful
4. not fair, unjust
   • 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, page 162:

     He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.

   It was unfair for the boss to give larger bonuses to his friends.

   Antonyms: fair, just

Translations

not fair

• Armenian: անարդար (hy) (anardar)
• Belarusian: несправядлі́вы (njespravjadlívy)
• Bulgarian: несправедли́в (bg) (nespravedlív)
• Catalan: injust
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不公平 (zh) (bùgōngpíng)

• Czech: nespravedlivý
• Danish: uretfærdig, ufin
• Esperanto: maljusta
• Finnish: epäreilu (fi)
• French: injuste (fr), déloyal (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: unfair (de), ungerecht (de)
• Hungarian: méltánytalan (hu), igazságtalan (hu)
• Icelandic: ósanngjarn m
• Italian: scorretto (it) m
• Japanese: 不公平 (ja) (ふこうへい, fukōhei)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 불공평하다 (bulgongpyeonghada)
• Latin: inīquus
• Luxembourgish: onfair
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: urettferdig (no)

  Nynorsk: urettferdig

• Polish: nieuczciwy (pl), niesprawiedliwy (pl)
• Portuguese: injusto (pt)
• Russian: несправедли́вый (ru) (nespravedlívyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: неправичан

  Roman: nepravičan (sh)

• Slovak: nespravodlivý
• Spanish: injusto (es)
• Swedish: orättvis (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: несправедли́вий (nespravedlývyj)
• Vietnamese: bất công (vi)

See also

• biased
• cheating
• discriminatory
• dishonest
• dishonorable
• disproportionate
• excessive
• foul
• inequitable
• invidious
• partial
• prejudiced
• underhanded
• unequal
• unethical
• uneven
• unfavorable
• unjust
• unjustified
• unwarranted
• wrong
• wrongful

Verb

unfair (third-person singular simple present unfairs, present participle unfairing, simple past and past participle unfaired)

1. (transitive, obsolete) to make ugly
   • (Can we date this quote?), William Shakespeare, sonnet V

     Those hours that with gentle work did frame / The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell / Will play the tyrants to the very same / And that unfair which fairly doth excel.

   Synonym: devenustate

Anagrams

• Funari

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German

Etymology

From un- +‎ fair.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʊnfɛːɐ̯/ (standard; used naturally in western Germany and Switzerland)
• IPA^(key): /ˈʊnfeːɐ̯/ (overall more common; particularly northern and eastern regions)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: un‧fair

Adjective

unfair (comparative unfairer, superlative am unfairsten)

1. unfair

   Synonyms: unlauter, ungerecht

   Antonym: fair

Further reading

• “unfair” in Duden online
• “unfair” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache