Meaning & use
unacceptable
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
So bad or wrong that people will not put up with it or allow it.
Grammar: Goes before a noun or after be; often followed by to for the person bothered: unacceptable to the staff.
Patterns
- unacceptable to someone
- it is unacceptable that something happens
Rude behavior toward customers is unacceptable.
The long delays were unacceptable to many passengers.
It is unacceptable that children go without lunch.
adjectivecomparable
Not good enough in quality or standard to be approved.
Grammar: Used for work or results that fail to reach a required standard: an unacceptable level of errors.
Patterns
- unacceptable level of something
The report contained an unacceptable number of mistakes.
Their offer was unacceptable, so we turned it down.
Noise at this level is unacceptable in a hospital.
Common combinations
- totally unacceptable
- Cheating on the exam is totally unacceptable.
- deem unacceptable
- The committee deemed the plan unacceptable.
- socially unacceptable
- Smoking indoors is now socially unacceptable in many places.
- unacceptable risk
- The bridge posed an unacceptable risk to drivers.
- find something unacceptable
- Many customers found the new fee unacceptable.
Synonyms and how they differ
- intolerable
- Intolerable is stronger and means impossible to bear, while unacceptable only says it will not be allowed.
- inadmissible
- Inadmissible is formal and often legal, as with evidence a court cannot accept.
- unsatisfactory
- Unsatisfactory is milder and means not good enough, without the sense of moral objection.
- inexcusable
- Inexcusable stresses that no excuse can justify an action, so it blames the person more than unacceptable.
Opposites
Word family
- unacceptably adverb
- to a degree that cannot be tolerated
- acceptable adjective
- good enough or allowed
- acceptability noun
- the quality of being acceptable
- accept verb
- to agree to take or allow
Commonly confused: unacceptable or inacceptable?
unacceptable vs inacceptable
Inacceptable is not standard English; use unacceptable.
Practice
Complete the sentence: The new schedule is unacceptable ___ most of the workers.
Choose one answer.
Unacceptable to someone is the usual pattern to show whose view it is. For is common among learners but sounds less natural here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “unacceptable”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.