Meanings
comparative more unsuccessful · superlative most unsuccessful
- Failed, not successful.
His unsuccessful attempt earned him sympathy, condolences, and an occasional good-natured ribbing.
1 more example
For example, an unsuccessful men's deodorant was successfully remerchandised by repackaging, heavier advertising, a higher price and new brand name 'Brut'.
2004, Luiz Moutinho, Charles S. Chien, Problems in marketing
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivenot successful; having failed or having an unfavorable outcome
adjectivefailing to accomplish an intended result
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*né
- Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
- Proto-Germanic*un-
- Proto-West Germanic*un-
- Old Englishun-
- Middle Englishun-
- Englishun-
- Englishsuccessful
- Englishunsuccessful
From un- + successful.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek ἄπρᾱκτος
- ἄπρᾱκτος (áprāktos)failed, not successful
Bengali অকৃতকার্য, অসফল
- অকৃতকার্য (okritokarjo)failed, not successful
- অসফল (ośophol)failed, not successful
Bulgarian неуспешен
- неуспешен (neuspešen)failed, not successful
Chinese Mandarin 不成功
- 不成功 (bùchénggōng)failed, not successful
Czech neúspěšný, nezdařilý
- neúspěšnýfailed, not successful
- nezdařilýfailed, not successful
Esperanto malsukcesa, sensukcesa
- malsukcesafailed, not successful
- sensukcesafailed, not successful
Finnish epäonnistunut
- epäonnistunutfailed, not successful
French infructueux
- infructueuxfailed, not successful
German erfolglos
- erfolglosfailed, not successful
Hindi असफल
- असफल (asphal)failed, not successful
Hungarian sikertelen
- sikertelenfailed, not successful
Japanese 不成功
- 不成功 (fuseikō)failed, not successful
Korean 성공하지 못한
- 성공하지 못한 (seonggonghaji mothan)failed, not successful
Māori rahua, ngere
- rahuafailed, not successful
- ngerefailed, not successful
Polish nieudany
- nieudanyfailed, not successful
Portuguese malsucedido
- malsucedidofailed, not successful
Russian безуспе́шный, неуда́чный
- безуспе́шный (bezuspéšnyj)failed, not successful
- неуда́чный (neudáčnyj)failed, not successful
- неуда́чливый (neudáčlivyj)failed, not successful
Spanish no exitoso
- no exitosofailed, not successful
Tagalog bigo
- bigofailed, not successful
Turkish başarısız
- başarısızfailed, not successful
Ukrainian безуспі́шний, невда́лий
- безуспі́шний (bezuspíšnyj)failed, not successful
- невда́лий (nevdályj)failed, not successful
- безрезульта́тний (bezrezulʹtátnyj)failed, not successful
Vietnamese bất thành, không thành công
- bất thànhfailed, not successful
- không thành côngfailed, not successful
Cite this entry
unsuccessful. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unsuccessful
“unsuccessful.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unsuccessful. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unsuccessful,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unsuccessful.
Source: unsuccessful on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.