UNHEALTHFUL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unhealthful mean? 

• UNHEALTHFUL (adjective)
  The adjective UNHEALTHFUL has 3 senses:

1. not sanitary or healthful

2. detrimental to good health

3. detrimental to health

  Familiarity information: UNHEALTHFUL used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNHEALTHFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not sanitary or healthful

Synonyms:

insanitary; unhealthful; unsanitary

Context example:

grim and unsanitary conditions

Similar:

unhygienic (unclean and constituting a likely cause of disease)

Derivation:

unhealthfulness (the quality of promoting poor health)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Detrimental to good health

Context example:

unhealthful conditions in old apartments with peeling lead-based paint

Similar:

crippling; disabling; incapacitating (that cripples or disables or incapacitates)

cytopathogenic (of or relating to or causing pathological changes in cells)

infective; morbific; pathogenic (able to cause disease)

nonmedicinal; unmedical; unmedicative; unmedicinal (not having a medicinal effect or not medically prescribed)

unhealthy (not conducive to good health)

Also:

infected; septic (containing or resulting from disease-causing organisms)

toxic (of or relating to or caused by a toxin or poison)

unwholesome (detrimental to physical or moral well-being)

Antonym:

healthful (conducive to good health of body or mind)

Derivation:

unhealthfulness (the quality of promoting poor health)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Detrimental to health

Synonyms:

insalubrious; unhealthful; unhealthy

Similar:

unwholesome (detrimental to physical or moral well-being)

Derivation:

unhealthfulness (the quality of promoting poor health)

 Context examples 

It strikes me as unnatural and unhealthful that men should be totally separated from women and herd through the world by themselves.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)