unnecessarily

adverb un·nec·es·sar·i·ly \ ˌən-ˌne-sə-ˈser-ə-lē \

|Updated on: 5 Aug 2018

Definition of unnecessarily

: not by necessity : to an unnecessary degree

unnecessarily harsh criticism

Recent Examples of unnecessarily from the Web

Firefighters are put in danger unnecessarily every day in the United States, fire service leaders say.

— mike hendricks, kansascity, "Fire departments fight a culture that saves — and costs — lives," 13 July 2018
Even in the first year the team spent unnecessarily on player payroll.

— andrew joseph, For The Win, "Bryan Colangelo's resignation brings back memories of Jerry Colangelo's ousting in Arizona," 7 June 2018
Here is what a rollback in mileage standards would mean: Thousands of Americans would die unnecessarily from cardiovascular and other diseases every year.

— rob jackson, Scientific American, "Relaxing Vehicle-Efficiency Standards Is a Truly Dangerous Idea," 12 July 2018
Others, according to the show's star Amybeth McNulty, unnecessarily took their criticism a step further.

— kayla keegan, Good Housekeeping, "'Anne With an E' Star Amybeth McNulty Has the Best Response to Her Online Trolls," 6 July 2018
If the federal government hasn’t allocated the resources to preparedness, or if communities lack robust response infrastructure, then people across the country will suffer unnecessarily during catastrophic events.

— nicolette louissaint, STAT, "Congress needs to back legislation supporting disaster preparedness," 15 June 2018
But even some in those groups found the video unnecessarily, even dangerously, incendiary.

— laura m. holson, New York Times, "The National Rifle Association’s Telegenic Warrior," 20 Jan. 2018
Purple family values is an unnecessarily complicated theory to describe something much easier to understand in partisan terms.

— jeet heer, The New Republic, "Trump’s sexual misconduct does not embody working class family values.," 2 July 2018
This creates unnecessarily poor patient outcomes and can also drive up our health-care costs.

— miamiherald, "Leigh-Ann Buchanan," 30 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'unnecessarily.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.