Meaning of unfair in English

unfair

adjective

/ʌnˈfeər/ us

/ʌnˈfer/

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not treating people in an equal way, or not morally right:

an unfair system

[ + to infinitive ] It's unfair to blame Robert.

Synonym

unjust disapproving

Opposites

fair

just

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

unfair

unfairThey objected to the state's unfair treatment of dissenters.
unjustThey protested unjust laws.
biasedThe newspaper gave a very biased report of the meeting.
slantedThe report was slanted in favour of the developers.
discriminatoryThe company has a zero-tolerance policy toward discriminatory practices.
prejudicedIt is well known that the company is prejudiced against older workers and refuses to hire anyone over the age of 50.

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More examplesFewer examples

an unfair distribution of wealth
She is suing the company on grounds of unfair dismissal.
It's unfair to take advantage of other people's misfortunes.
The inquiry found that they had been subjected to unfair treatment.
The teams change ends at half-time so that neither side has an unfair advantage.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Unfairness and favouring someone unfairly

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Related words

unfairly

unfairness

(Definition of unfair from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

unfair | American Dictionary

unfair

adjective

/ʌnˈfeər/

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not fair :

It seems unfair to tax you both where you work and where you live.

unfairly

adverb us

/ʌnˈfer·li, -ˈfær-/

The company unfairly denied her medical benefits.

unfairness

noun [ U ] us

/ʌnˈfer·nəs, -ˈfær-/

(Definition of unfair from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

unfair | Business English

unfair

adjective

/ʌnˈfeər/ us

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not morally right, or not treating people in an equal way:

Businesses argue that the tax idea is unfair because it is based on revenue, rather than profit.

We will not accept unfair treatment of individuals whether it be because of race, sex, age or religion.

Critics of the bill think that new service providers will be given an unfair advantage over cable companies with existing franchise agreements.

unfair competition/practices/subsidies

be/seem unfair to do sth It is unfair to judge infrastructure services on the basis of return on investment.

be/seem unfair that It seems unfair that the Scottish and Irish fishing industries should be hardest hit when other EU countries have also contributed to the over-fishing problem.

grossly/really unfair

unfairly

adverb

Some departments claim that they were treated unfairly in the reorganization.

(Definition of unfair from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of unfair

unfair

Having random police patrols apprehend only some "unsuccessful" attempting criminals is not unfair even when such patrols miss other attempting criminals.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As should now be clear, this was unfair.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The latter does not discriminate among all those possible rules that are not grossly unfair.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, it really is unfair to keep asking for more.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Success and finite failure are generally conditional on fairness; looping may occur with an unfair search or computation rule.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The target should not be employers but "those whose prejudices actually cause unfair employment practices," by which they meant unions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It's somewhat of an unfair question, of course, since almost by definition, if you have them, that's what you're working on.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Yet might these criticisms of the ageing standards that continue to inform our understanding of popular politics during the goldrushes be a little unfair ?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Firstly, this variability gives some compilers an advantage (but not an unfair advantage).

From the Cambridge English Corpus

But how unfair it would be to reduce computer science to these archaic mistakes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As ever yone knows, there are often distinctly unfair balances of power within a population, including the power to set categories.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There were many stories of exploitation, mismanagement and unfair treatment.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

None of this proves it to be somehow unfair if nobody rules at all or if social order is maintained without resorting to governance.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This emphasis on unfair trade practices suspended national planning and revitalized the market by discouraging cutthroat competition.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A major concern is that some students may be disadvantaged by an approach often perceived by students to be unfair.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of unfair?

Translations of unfair

in Chinese (Traditional)

不公平的，不公正的, 不正當的…

Meaning of unfair in English

Related words

unfair | American Dictionary

unfairly

unfairness

unfair | Business English

unfairly

Examples of unfair

Translations of unfair

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