Meanings
comparative more unfairly · superlative most unfairly
- In a manner that is unfair.
The carnival games were unfairly difficult, and hardly anybody won a prize.
1 more example
As a result, many Black people remained unfairly enslaved and indentured in the so-called free territory. This was not legal slavery (also known as de jure slavery), but slavery in practice (de facto slavery).
2022, Mary Elise Antoine, Enslaved, Indentured, Free: Five Black Women on the Upper Mississippi, 1800–1850, Wisconsin Historical Society, →ISBNSynonyms: unjustly
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbIn a manner that is unfair.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From unfair + -ly or un- + fairly.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
unfairly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unfairly
“unfairly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unfairly. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unfairly,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unfairly.
Source: unfairly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.