Meaning & use
ineligible
Last updated
Meanings
adjectiveafter a verb
Not allowed to take part in or receive something because you do not meet the rules.
Grammar: Usually follows be and takes for or to: ineligible for a grant, ineligible to vote.
Patterns
- ineligible for something
- ineligible to do something
He was ineligible for the scholarship because his grades were too low.
Residents under eighteen are ineligible to vote.
The injured player was ruled ineligible for Saturday's match.
adjectivebefore a nounformal
Not suitable or acceptable for choosing, such as in an election or selection.
Grammar: Can come before a noun: ineligible candidates.
Patterns
- an ineligible candidate
The committee removed ineligible applicants from the list.
Ineligible entries will be discarded.
Several ineligible candidates were disqualified.
Common combinations
- ineligible for benefits
- Part-time staff are ineligible for benefits.
- ineligible to vote
- Visitors are ineligible to vote.
- deemed ineligible
- The application was deemed ineligible.
- render ineligible
- A missed deadline renders you ineligible.
- ruled ineligible
- He was ruled ineligible by the league.
Synonyms and how they differ
- unqualified
- Unqualified stresses lacking skills or training, while ineligible is about rules.
- disqualified
- Disqualified means you were removed after an event or check, which is a result, not a state.
- unfit
- Unfit points to a general lack of suitability, not to formal requirements.
Opposites
Word family
- eligible adjective
- allowed or qualified to do something
- eligibility noun
- the state of meeting the rules
- ineligibility noun
- the state of not meeting the rules
- eligibly adverb
- rarely used; in a qualified way
Commonly confused: ineligible or illegible?
ineligible vs illegible
Illegible means impossible to read, and the spelling and sound differ only slightly from ineligible.
Practice
Because she had not lived in the country long enough, she was _____ to vote.
Choose one answer.
Ineligible to vote means not allowed to vote. Illegible is a spelling lookalike that means unreadable.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ineligible”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.