Unethical means against the principles of right conduct. Unethical practice, unethical behaviour, plainly unethical.
It is a professional judgement as much as a moral one: unethical usually means breaching a code that exists in writing, which is why it is used of doctors, lawyers, researchers and journalists more than of ordinary life. Something can be legal and unethical at once, which is the whole reason the word is needed. Note ethics; and unethical against immoral, which is broader.
1adjectiveunethicalAgainst the principles of right conduct.
“It is unethical for a doctor to share a patient's private details without permission.”
unethical is a quality of wrong conduct.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
Ancient Greek
ἠθικός — of or for morals, moral, expressing character
Latin
ethicus — moral, ethical
English
ethical
English, today
unethical
Built from
From un- + ethical. ethical comes from ethic + -al, from Latin ethicus (“moral, ethical”), from Ancient Greek ἠθικός (“of or for morals, moral, expressing character”), from ἦθος (“character, moral nature”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA