ill-prepared

adjective

Not well prepared. Not ready, or not in condition to do a task.

“He was ill-prepared for the exam. I'm not surprised he failed.”

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

adjectiveill-prepared (comparative more ill-prepared, superlative most ill-prepared)

comparative more ill-prepared · superlative most ill-prepared

  1. Not well prepared. Not ready, or not in condition to do a task.

    He was ill-prepared for the exam. I'm not surprised he failed.

    1 more example

    The colonists, many of them gentlemen ill-prepared to be settlers, achieved failure at almost everything they tried.

    2006, William M Kelso, Jamestown - The Buried Truth

Origin

From ill + prepared.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

ill-prepared. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ill-prepared

MLA

“ill-prepared.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ill-prepared. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ill-prepared,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ill-prepared.

Source: ill-prepared on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.