unfair

English

Etymology

From Middle English unfair (“unattractive, unseemly”), from Old English unfæġer (“ugly”), equivalent to un- +‎ fair.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈfɛə(ɹ)/, [ɐnˈfɛə(ɹ)], /ʌnˈfɛː(ɹ)/, [ɐnˈfɛː(ɹ)]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈfɛɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)

Adjective

unfair (comparative unfairer or more unfair, superlative unfairest or most unfair)

1. Not fair.
   1. Not just.

      Synonyms: no fair, unjust, inequitable, unequitable

      Antonyms: fair, just, equitable

      Hyponym: iniquitous

      Coordinate terms: unequal, inequal (fairness is not always equality, but some inequality is unfair)

      It was unfair for the boss to give larger bonuses to his friends.

      • 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 21 June 2017, page 162:

        He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.

      • 2017 October 2, Heather Alexandra, “Cuphead Player Beats Bosses Without Taking A Single Hit”, in Kotaku‎^[2], archived from the original on 18 February 2018:

        Cuphead built a reputation for difficulty before release, but its boss battles are mostly about recognizing patterns than getting lucky against unfair bosses. Watching players ace their way through the game’s bosses is a spellbinding reminder that even tough games can be defeated easily with hard work.

      • 2022 January 12, “Network News: Further extension to Transport for London emergency funding”, in RAIL, number 948, page 8:

        Khan countered this by alleging that 'unfair' conditions, such as raising council tax, are being attached to any new funding deal that would "punish Londoners" for the effect the pandemic has had on passenger numbers. He added: "These short-term deals are trapping TfL on life support rather than putting it on the path to long-term sustainability."

   2. (rare or archaic) Not beautiful; uncomely; unattractive.

      Antonyms: fair, beautiful, comely, pretty

   3. (archaic or obsolete) Sorrowful; sad.
   4. (archaic) Unseemly; disgraceful.

Derived terms

• unfair competition
• unfair dismissal
• unfair list
• unfairly
• unfairness

Related terms

• fair go

Translations

not fair

• Armenian: անարդար (hy) (anardar)
• Belarusian: несправядлі́вы (njespravjadlívy)
• Bulgarian: несправедли́в (bg) (nespravedlív)
• Catalan: injust (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不公平 (zh) (bùgōngpíng)

• Czech: nespravedlivý (cs)
• Danish: uretfærdig, ufin
• Esperanto: maljusta
• Finnish: epäreilu (fi)
• French: injuste (fr), déloyal (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: unfair (de), ungerecht (de)
• Hungarian: méltánytalan (hu), igazságtalan (hu)
• Icelandic: ósanngjarn m
• Italian: scorretto (it) m, sleale (it), ingiusto (it)
• Japanese: 不公平 (ja) (ふこうへい, fukōhei), ずるい (ja) (zurui)
• Khmer: មិន​យុត្តិធម៌ (mɨn-yuttethɔə)
• Korean: 불공평하다 (bulgongpyeonghada)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: neheq (ku)

• Latin: inīquus
• Luxembourgish: onfair
• Macedonian: нечесен (nečesen)
• Māori: makihuhunu
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: urettferdig (no)

  Nynorsk: urettferdig

• Old English: unrihtwīs
• Polish: nieuczciwy (pl), niesprawiedliwy (pl)
• Portuguese: injusto (pt)
• Russian: несправедли́вый (ru) (nespravedlívyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: неправичан

  Latin: nepravičan (sh)

• Slovak: nespravodlivý
• Spanish: injusto (es), que no vale, inicuo (es)
• Swedish: orättvis (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: adaletsiz (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: عدالتسز (ʼadaletsiz)

• Ukrainian: несправедли́вий (nespravedlývyj)
• Vietnamese: bất công (vi)
• Woiwurrung: ngaboon-noon-koorreen

See also

• biased
• cheating
• discriminatory
• dishonest
• dishonorable
• disproportionate
• excessive
• foul
• invidious
• partial
• prejudiced
• underhanded
• unequal
• unethical
• uneven
• unfavorable
• unjust
• unjustified
• unwarranted
• wrong
• wrongful

Verb

unfair (third-person singular simple present unfairs, present participle unfairing, simple past and past participle unfaired)

1. (transitive, obsolete) to make ugly
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 5”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     Those hours that with gentle work did frame / The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell / Will play the tyrants to the very same / And that unfair which fairly doth excel.

Anagrams

• Funari

German

Etymology

From un- +‎ fair.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʊnˌfɛːr/, [ˈʔʊn-], [ˈʔʊɱ-], [-ˌfɛːɐ̯], [-ˌfeːɐ̯], [-ˌfɛɐ̯]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: un‧fair

Adjective

unfair (strong nominative masculine singular unfairer, comparative unfairer, superlative am unfairsten)

1. unfair

   Synonyms: unlauter, ungerecht

   Antonym: fair

Declension

Positive forms of unfair number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist unfair sie ist unfair es ist unfair sie sind unfair strong declension (without article) nominative unfairer unfaire unfaires unfaire genitive unfairen unfairer unfairen unfairer dative unfairem unfairer unfairem unfairen accusative unfairen unfaire unfaires unfaire weak declension (with definite article) nominative der unfaire die unfaire das unfaire die unfairen genitive des unfairen der unfairen des unfairen der unfairen dative dem unfairen der unfairen dem unfairen den unfairen accusative den unfairen die unfaire das unfaire die unfairen mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein unfairer eine unfaire ein unfaires (keine) unfairen genitive eines unfairen einer unfairen eines unfairen (keiner) unfairen dative einem unfairen einer unfairen einem unfairen (keinen) unfairen accusative einen unfairen eine unfaire ein unfaires (keine) unfairen Comparative forms of unfair number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist unfairer sie ist unfairer es ist unfairer sie sind unfairer strong declension (without article) nominative unfairerer unfairere unfaireres unfairere genitive unfaireren unfairerer unfaireren unfairerer dative unfairerem unfairerer unfairerem unfaireren accusative unfaireren unfairere unfaireres unfairere weak declension (with definite article) nominative der unfairere die unfairere das unfairere die unfaireren genitive des unfaireren der unfaireren des unfaireren der unfaireren dative dem unfaireren der unfaireren dem unfaireren den unfaireren accusative den unfaireren die unfairere das unfairere die unfaireren mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein unfairerer eine unfairere ein unfaireres (keine) unfaireren genitive eines unfaireren einer unfaireren eines unfaireren (keiner) unfaireren dative einem unfaireren einer unfaireren einem unfaireren (keinen) unfaireren accusative einen unfaireren eine unfairere ein unfaireres (keine) unfaireren Superlative forms of unfair number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist am unfairsten sie ist am unfairsten es ist am unfairsten sie sind am unfairsten strong declension (without article) nominative unfairster unfairste unfairstes unfairste genitive unfairsten unfairster unfairsten unfairster dative unfairstem unfairster unfairstem unfairsten accusative unfairsten unfairste unfairstes unfairste weak declension (with definite article) nominative der unfairste die unfairste das unfairste die unfairsten genitive des unfairsten der unfairsten des unfairsten der unfairsten dative dem unfairsten der unfairsten dem unfairsten den unfairsten accusative den unfairsten die unfairste das unfairste die unfairsten mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein unfairster eine unfairste ein unfairstes (keine) unfairsten genitive eines unfairsten einer unfairsten eines unfairsten (keiner) unfairsten dative einem unfairsten einer unfairsten einem unfairsten (keinen) unfairsten accusative einen unfairsten eine unfairste ein unfairstes (keine) unfairsten

Further reading

• “unfair” in Duden online
• “unfair”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[3] (in German)