unrepresentative

adjective

un·​rep·​re·​sen·​ta·​tive ˌən-ˌre-pri-ˈzen-tə-tiv How to pronounce unrepresentative (audio)
: not representative: such as
a
: not typical or characteristic : atypical
an unrepresentative sample
We only claim that our town is not all that unrepresentative of America in its mixture of idealism and weakness, ambitions and muddles …Judith Martin
b
: not representing an electorate
an unrepresentative judiciary
unrepresentativeness noun

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web My own initial hunch is that the national media is very unrepresentative of America. Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 7 Jan. 2012 My working assumption is that these are not unrepresentative. Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 16 Apr. 2012 But many Democrats for years have knocked both states as unrepresentative of the party as a whole, for being largely White with few major urban areas. Kyle Morris, Fox News, 4 Feb. 2023 If the data used to train a chatbot is inaccurate or unrepresentative, the chatbot may have difficulty understanding user inquiries or providing appropriate responses. Gary Drenik, Forbes, 10 Jan. 2023 By 2050, our increasingly multicultural society will be more thoroughly shackled by laws emanating from these unrepresentative bodies. Julie C. Suk, The New Republic, 5 Dec. 2022 Put less delicately: The homogeneity of this particular award is an atrocity — laughably unrepresentative of the inventiveness of its medium. Vulture, 17 Oct. 2022 The key is that all that that will entail is an alignment of the public and the personal, because many whites already sequester themselves in a world which is highly unrepresentative, just as many Asians, blacks, and Mexicans, etc., do. Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 19 May 2012 In the past, studios often wasted numerous work hours preparing E3 demos for June, whether the timing made sense or not, which led to lost development time, long hours, and sometimes unrepresentative demos. Samuel Axon, Ars Technica, 11 Jan. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unrepresentative.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1829, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of unrepresentative was in 1829

Dictionary Entries Near unrepresentative

Cite this Entry

“Unrepresentative.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unrepresentative. Accessed 1 Apr. 2023.

More from Merriam-Webster on unrepresentative

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!


Which Came First?

  • baby chick with a brown egg
  • hot take or cold shoulder?
True or False

Test your knowledge - and maybe learn something along the way.

TAKE THE QUIZ
Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can with using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.

Can you make 12 words with 7 letters?

PLAY