uncompetitive

adjective

un·​com·​pet·​i·​tive ˌən-kəm-ˈpe-tə-tiv 

: not competitive : unable to compete

The only real alternative would be to protect those uncompetitive industries against foreign competition.

—Business Week

Greene took his latest Courageous to Australia for the current race, but he says he withdrew it when it proved uncompetitive against other boats backed by fatter treasuries.

—John Rousmaniere

uncompetitiveness noun

Examples of uncompetitive in a Sentence

As long as the school system keeps offering uncompetitive wages, people looking for jobs will apply elsewhere.

Recent Examples on the Web

Their offense disappeared for prolonged periods with uncompetitive at-bats, and their pitching staff wasn’t able to execute strike one often enough. —Fabian Ardaya, New York Times, 18 Aug. 2025

Those who still cling to fragmented networking and security frameworks will be caught in a cycle of sluggish application performance, operational inefficiencies and a highly uncompetitive security position. —David Joosten, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2025

Congressional district elections become uncompetitive. —Benjamin Schneer, Time, 14 Aug. 2025

There were two other good starts in there as well, but over his last three, he’s been inefficient at best and uncompetitive at worst. —Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 4 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1885, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for uncompetitive

• noncompetitive
• anticompetitive
• appetitive
• competitive
• repetitive

Kids Definition

uncompetitive

adjective

un·​com·​pet·​i·​tive ˌən-kəm-ˈpet-ət-iv 

: not competitive : unable to compete

uncompetitiveness noun