unhealthy

adjective

ˌən-ˈhel-thē How to pronounce unhealthy (audio)
Definition of unhealthynext
1
as in poisonous
bad for the well-being of the body we knew that the junk food at the carnival was unhealthy, but it tasted so good!

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in dangerous
involving potential loss or injury criticism of the military dictatorship has proved to be unhealthy for several of that nation's journalists

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in sick
temporarily suffering from a disorder of the body she's been unhealthy for almost a week now

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 unhealthy However, due to the prescribed burn, air quality in western and central Sonoma County may range from unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy, very unhealthy or hazardous, according to the county health officer. — Jose Fabian, CBS News, 7 Oct. 2026 Not every unhealthy environment can be fixed with resilience, better time management or stronger boundaries. — Nike Ajao, Forbes.com, 5 Oct. 2026 Nike told Vogue Business that Hill, who became CEO in 2024, has cleaned up unhealthy inventory, reset the marketplace, and created more space for a new series of Nike performance products and innovation. — Joe Bobowicz, Vogue, 2 Oct. 2026 But that life was disrupted when her father took up a mistress and developed an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, causing Barbara to move several times and board with neighbors before eventually settling into a two-room apartment with her mother. — Genevieve Uzamere, PEOPLE, 29 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for unhealthy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unhealthy
  1. poisonous
  2. dangerous
  3. sick
  4. toxic
  5. hazardous
  6. bad
  7. unhealthful
  8. risky
Adjective
  • With the throne disengaged from governance, petitions and reports from officials piled up unread, crucial state posts went unfilled, and the imperial bureaucracy splintered amid poisonous factional infighting.
    — Carl Minzner, Foreign Affairs, 5 Oct. 2026
  • With this potential even more poisonous investments in the bloated and indebted Paramount behemoth, there’s even more reason to reject it.
    — Abigail Disney, New York Daily News, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of poisonous
Adjective
  • When threatening phone calls begin and a dangerous fugitive surfaces in town, Jenny grows suspicious of everyone around her as the danger begins closing in.
    — Glenn Garner, Deadline, 11 Oct. 2026
  • One of the reasons being an actor is both dangerous and a privilege is that your job is to think about all the different roads your life could take, and all the people that live inside you, and all your potential.
    — Sarah Larson, New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2026
Definition of dangerous
Adjective
  • Along with missing guard Dru Smith (right calf strain) and two-way contract forward Keshad Johnson (right hamstring strain) for the second straight exhibition game, the Heat was also without guard Pelle Larsson (sick) on Thursday.
    — Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Two types of influenza — A and B — are responsible for the seasonal flu epidemics that make people sick, according to the California Department of Public Health.
    — Sacbee.com, Sacbee.com, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of sick
Adjective
  • There’s the threat of exposure to toxic substances and the long-term threat of cancer.
    — Ben Wheeler, Kansas City Star, 12 Oct. 2026
  • Replacing toxic battery ingredients Binders are glue-like materials that hold electrode particles together and attach them to thin metal foils inside batteries.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of toxic
Adjective
  • The facility has sign for consumer advisory for undercooked food, and the potentially hazardous items are marked, but the sign is lacking asterisks.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 12 Oct. 2026
  • The production was shut down in Livingston, Montana last Saturday when locals complained about the production’s impact on the Livingston food bank and improper warnings about hazardous stunts.
    — Pat Saperstein, Variety, 10 Oct. 2026
Definition of hazardous
Adjective
  • But then came the nightmare of Game 3, one of the Sox’s worst performances in weeks.
    — Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Specifically, people with worse fever tended to have more of a protein called flagellin in their systems than those with little to no fever.
    — Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of bad
Adjective
  • Warnings of unhealthful air quality remained in effect Saturday across a wide swath of the United States due to smoke from Canadian wildfires that has engulfed the Northeast in haze for days.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 18 July 2026
  • The soil may contain pathogens, pesticides and other unhealthful things.
    — Joan Morris, Mercury News, 9 Feb. 2026
Definition of unhealthful
Adjective
  • Willis at times has shown an aversion for check-downs and instead has attempted riskier or unwise throws, something that happened multiple times in Sunday’s 31-24 loss to Cincinnati.
    — Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 11 Oct. 2026
  • Rescues this high are risky and expensive, and helicopters cannot safely fly at such altitudes.
    — Helen Regan, CNN Money, 10 Oct. 2026
Definition of risky

Browse Nearby Words

unhealthiness
unhealthy
unheard-of
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Unhealthy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unhealthy. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

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

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 16
See More

Popular

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
a cup of tea and a golf ball on tee side by side
Quiz: Sounds Like... Choose the word that sounds like it fits the clue...
See All