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, superlative unfairest)

1. not fair, unjust

   Antonyms: fair, just

   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.

   • 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
3. (archaic or obsolete) sorrowful; sad
4. (archaic) unseemly; disgraceful

Derived terms

• unfair competition
• unfair list

 

Translations

not fair

• Armenian: անարդար (hy) (anardar)
• Belarusian: несправядлі́вы (njespravjadlívy)
• Bulgarian: несправедли́в (bg) (nespravedlív)
• Catalan: injust
• 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)
• Khmer: មិន​យុត្តិធម៌ (mɨn-yuttethɔə)
• Korean: 불공평하다 (bulgongpyeonghada)
• Latin: inīquus
• Luxembourgish: onfair
• Macedonian: нечесен (nečesen)
• Maori: 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

  Roman: nepravičan (sh)

• Slovak: nespravodlivý
• Spanish: injusto (es)
• Swedish: orättvis (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: несправедли́вий (nespravedlývyj)
• Vietnamese: bất công (vi)

See also

• biased
• cheating
• discriminatory
• dishonest
• dishonorable
• disproportionate
• excessive
• foul
• inequitable
• 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

   Synonym: devenustate

   • 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

  (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