Meaning & use
unreasonable
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Not fair or sensible, especially in what you demand from others or in how you behave.
Grammar: Used about people, demands and behavior: an unreasonable boss, Don't be unreasonable.
Patterns
- be unreasonable about something
- it is unreasonable to do something
It is unreasonable to expect a reply within minutes.
My manager was unreasonable about the deadline.
Don't be unreasonable; nobody can finish that in an hour.
adjectivebefore a noun
Much higher or greater than is fair or normal.
Grammar: Usually describes a cost, amount or delay before a noun: an unreasonable price.
Patterns
- an unreasonable amount of something
The shop charged an unreasonable price for a bottle of water.
We waited an unreasonable length of time for our food.
The tenant faced unreasonable rent increases.
Word forms
| comparative | more unreasonable |
|---|---|
| superlative | most unreasonable |
Common combinations
- unreasonable demands
- The client made unreasonable demands on the team.
- unreasonable expectations
- Unreasonable expectations can hurt a young athlete.
- unreasonable behavior
- The court heard evidence of unreasonable behavior.
- perfectly unreasonable
- It's perfectly unreasonable to ask them to work all night.
- unreasonable delay
- The airline apologized for the unreasonable delay.
Synonyms and how they differ
- unfair
- Unfair focuses on lack of justice toward someone, while unreasonable points to a lack of good sense or fair limits.
- irrational
- Irrational means not based on logic at all, but unreasonable suggests being stubborn or asking too much.
- excessive
- Excessive only describes going beyond what is needed and does not carry the suggestion of unfairness that unreasonable has.
Opposites
Word family
- unreasonably adverb
- in a way that is not fair or sensible
- unreasonableness noun
- the quality of being unreasonable
- reasonable adjective
- fair and sensible
- reason noun
- a cause, or the ability to think clearly
Commonly confused: unreasonable or unreasoning?
unreasonable vs unreasoning
Unreasoning describes feelings that are not based on thought, such as unreasoning fear, whereas unreasonable describes unfair or excessive demands.
Practice
The landlord's demand that tenants pay a month's rent every week is ___.
Choose one answer.
Charging far more than is fair is unreasonable. Reasonable and rational mean the opposite, and reasoned describes carefully thought-out arguments.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “unreasonable”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.