Unavailable

How to spell unavailable

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce unavailable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unavailable mean?

1. adjectiveNot able to be obtained, accessed, or made use of, or not free to meet or talk.

Unavailable in a sentence

• The manager was unavailable for comment until the afternoon.

• The part we ordered is currently unavailable from every local supplier.

Where does unavailable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word builds on 'avail', which English took from Old French during the 1200s, ultimately from the Latin verb valere, meaning 'to be strong' or 'to be of worth'. The same valere root sits behind a whole family of familiar words such as 'value', 'valid', 'valiant' and 'convalesce', all carrying the idea of strength or worth. The negative prefix un- (meaning 'not') and the suffix -able (meaning 'capable of being') were attached to produce the modern adjective, which describes something that cannot be obtained, accessed, or made use of. The middle spelling is the usual trap: 'avail' takes a single l, and the ending is -able rather than -ible, so the full word is un + avail + able. It became common in administrative and commercial English, and today it appears constantly in calendars, shops, and online listings to mean simply 'not free' or 'not in stock'.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• avail (from Latin valere, to be worth or be strong)
• -able (capable of being)