UNWHOLESOME Synonyms: 73 Similar and Opposite Words

unwholesome

adjective

ˌən-ˈhōl-səm

as in poisonous

bad for the well-being of the body health inspectors shut down several food stands that were using tainted and unwholesome meat

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in corrupt

having or showing lowered moral character or standards despite having been raised in such unwholesome environments as a brothel and a traveling circus, singer Edith Piaf rose to international stardom

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of unwholesome Their jail is strange and unwholesome. —

Robert Rubsam, The Atlantic, 26 Mar. 2026 Grievous bodily harm, nonconsensual drugging, murder, yes…still, thank god there’s nothing unwholesome here, like say a man in a dress. —

Dennis Harvey, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026 The public, however, knew what to expect from this unwholesome mixture of politics and celebrity and didn’t tune in. —

Sean Williams, Harpers Magazine, 24 Feb. 2026 But unlike Materialists, those movies—pictures like Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth or Preston Sturges’ The Palm Beach Story—emerged in a time when Hollywood censors were keeping a close eye on movies’ ideology, determined to protect audiences from unwholesome influences. —

Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 13 June 2025 By mid-afternoon the weather turned downright unwholesome. —

Arthur Grahame, Outdoor Life, 4 June 2025 Like its unwholesome protagonist, the film — and the roving camera of Vladislav Opelyants, shooting in gorgeously high-contrast black-and-white — is forever on the move, creating an immersive aesthetic experience that amounts to a big pile of nothing. —

Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 20 May 2025 As for the place, its veneer of comfortable tourism doesn’t hide the air of something unwholesome, especially when female guests start randomly throwing up. —

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Feb. 2024 In celebration of her return, everyone from comedian Melissa McCarthy, who’s playing the conniving nemesis of King Triton, to film historians, are taking the opportunity to pay tribute to the legendary drag queen who inspired Ursula’s unwholesome ways: Divine. —

Elaina Patton, NBC News, 26 May 2023

Recent Examples of Synonyms for unwholesome

Adjective

The villain, though, is not Michael Jackson but his father, Joe, whose determination to get his boys out of Gary, Indiana, turns into something more poisonous.

— Kelefa Sanneh, New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2026
Except for the Genetic Infantry, blue super soldiers engineered by the Southers to survive the poisonous atmosphere.

— Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 20 Apr. 2026