Unacceptable

How to spell unacceptable

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce unacceptable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unacceptable mean?

1. adjectiveNot satisfactory or allowable; so far below standard that it cannot be tolerated.

Unacceptable in a sentence

• The manager said a delay of three weeks was completely unacceptable.

• Leaving the safety guard off the machine is unacceptable on the factory floor.

Where does unacceptable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on the Latin verb accipere, meaning 'to take to oneself' or 'to receive', which combined ad ('to') with capere ('to take, seize'). From accipere came the sense of something that could be 'received' or welcomed, and the Latin acceptabilis meant exactly that: worthy of being accepted. English took 'acceptable' through Old French in the 1300s, and then layered on the native Old English prefix un- ('not') to form the negative. The same capere root that supplies the double 'c' here also lives in 'capture', 'capable', and 'receive', and that hidden 'cc' plus the unstressed schwa in the middle is precisely where adult spellers stumble. The fully formed 'unacceptable' was in steady use by the 1600s as the plain opposite of acceptable.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• ac- (to, from Latin ad)
• cept (take, from capere)
• -able (capable of being)