UNFITNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unfitness mean? 

• UNFITNESS (noun)
  The noun UNFITNESS has 3 senses:

1. poor physical condition; being out of shape or out of condition (as from a life of ease and luxury)

2. lacking the power to perform

3. the quality of not being suitable

  Familiarity information: UNFITNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNFITNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Poor physical condition; being out of shape or out of condition (as from a life of ease and luxury)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

softness; unfitness

Hypernyms ("unfitness" is a kind of...):

health problem; ill health; unhealthiness (a state in which you are unable to function normally and without pain)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "unfitness"):

debility; feebleness; frailness; frailty; infirmity; valetudinarianism (the state of being weak in health or body (especially from old age))

disability; disablement; handicap; impairment (the condition of being unable to perform as a consequence of physical or mental unfitness)

Antonym:

fitness (good physical condition; being in shape or in condition)

Derivation:

unfit (not in good physical or mental condition; out of condition)

unfit (physically unsound or diseased)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking the power to perform

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

inability; unfitness

Hypernyms ("unfitness" is a kind of...):

quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "unfitness"):

unadaptability (the inability to change or be changed to fit changed circumstances)

insensitiveness; insensitivity (the inability to respond to affective changes in your interpersonal environment)

incompetence; incompetency (lack of physical or intellectual ability or qualifications)

incapability; incapableness (the quality of not being capable -- physically or intellectually or legally)

insufficiency ((pathology) inability of a bodily part or organ to function normally)

Derivation:

unfit (not in good physical or mental condition; out of condition)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The quality of not being suitable

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

the judges agreed on his unfitness for the appointment

Hypernyms ("unfitness" is a kind of...):

ineptness; unsuitability; unsuitableness (the quality of having the wrong properties for a specific purpose)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "unfitness"):

disqualification (unfitness that bars you from participation)

Antonym:

fitness (the quality of being suitable)

Derivation:

unfit (below the required standards for a purpose)

 Context examples 

So he sat at table, perturbed by his own unfitness and at the same time charmed by all that went on about him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I afterwards learned that, knowing my father’s advanced age and unfitness for so long a journey, and how wretched my sickness would make Elizabeth, he spared them this grief by concealing the extent of my disorder.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I never in my life saw men so careless of the morrow; hand to mouth is the only word that can describe their way of doing; and what with wasted food and sleeping sentries, though they were bold enough for a brush and be done with it, I could see their entire unfitness for anything like a prolonged campaign.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Whenever she had thought of the minutiae of the evening, it had been as a matter of course that Edmund would begin with Miss Crawford; and the impression was so strong, that though her uncle spoke the contrary, she could not help an exclamation of surprise, a hint of her unfitness, an entreaty even to be excused.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)