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unavailable

UK/ˌʌnəˈveɪləbəl/US/ˌʌnəˈveɪləbəl/
adjectiveB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,931 of 15,258leans written

Unavailable means not able to be had or reached. Currently unavailable, unavailable for comment, temporarily unavailable.

Unavailable for comment is the standard formula when somebody has declined to speak or could not be reached, and it deliberately does not say which. In shops it means out of stock. Of a person, emotionally unavailable is now a fixed phrase meaning unwilling or unable to form a close attachment. Note available; and that unavailable is almost always temporary in implication.

Definitions of unavailable

  1. 1adjectiveunavailableNot able to be had or reached.B2

    “The manager is unavailable this afternoon, but you can leave a message.”

unavailable is a state of not being obtainable.

Where it comes from

  1. Middle English

    available

  2. English

    available

  3. English, today

    unavailable

From un- + available. available comes from Middle English available, avayllable, avayleable, equivalent of avail + able.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

Practise this word

unavailable in the wild

  • Resources can be consumed by one organism and, as a result, become unavailable to another organism.

    Resource (biology)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • avail
  • available
  • availability