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untrustworthy

UK/ˌʌnˈtɹʌstˌwɜːði/US/ˌʌnˈtɹʌstˌwɜɹ.ði/
adjectiveC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Untrustworthy means not safe to rely on or to confide in. Whatever they promised, do not count on it.

It is one of the most serious things you can say about somebody in a working context, and references avoid it for exactly that reason, since the accusation is hard to answer. It applies to sources and data as well as people, so an untrustworthy witness and untrustworthy figures both mean the same doubt. Unreliable is milder and describes failure to deliver rather than dishonesty.

Definitions of untrustworthy

  1. 1adjectiveuntrustworthyNot able to be relied on or confided in.C1

    “The whole account came from an untrustworthy source.”

Also accepted in games: unreliable

Where it comes from

From un- + trustworthy.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 18 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

untrustworthy in the wild

  • Tolkien scholars note that Tolkien based Wormtongue on the untrustworthy character Unferth in Beowulf.

    Gríma Wormtongue

  • When they reach Jinnicky's palace, they find that Jinnicky has been deposed and enchanted by an untrustworthy slave.

    The Silver Princess in Oz

  • In academic publishing, an expression of concern is a notice issued by a publisher against a particular publication, warning that it may contain errors or be otherwise untrustworthy.

    Expression of concern

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.