unenviable
/ənˈɛnvˌiəbəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.26 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
5
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Difficult, undesirable, or unpleasant; not to be envied.
Example Sentences
- "Valjean was in the unenviable position of either living with the knowledge an innocent would suffer for his crime or revealing his true identity and going back to prison."
- "There might be a 'train captain' on board, as on the Docklands Light Railway, but this would be an unenviable role on our packed Tube: the train captain would be condemned to live in a permanent rush hour."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- Old French enviebor. Middle English envie English envy Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English enviable English unenviable From un- + enviable.
Inflected Forms
more unenviable (comparative)
most unenviable (superlative)