Unqualified

How to spell unqualified

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce unqualified

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unqualified mean?

1. adjectiveNot having the necessary skills, training, or credentials for a task or role.
2. adjectiveComplete and without any limiting conditions or reservations.

Unqualified in a sentence

• The panel rejected him as unqualified for the senior post.

• The launch was an unqualified success for the whole team.

• An unqualified electrician should never touch the mains supply.

• The board gave its unqualified support to the new policy.

Where does unqualified come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on 'qualify', which English took during the 1500s from the Old French qualifier and the medieval Latin qualificare, meaning 'to attribute a quality to' or 'to describe'. That verb was assembled from the Latin qualis, meaning 'of what kind', and facere, meaning 'to make' or 'to do', so its literal sense was 'to make of a certain kind'. From there 'qualify' came to mean both 'to be fit or eligible for something' and 'to limit or moderate a statement', and the prefix un-, the native English marker of negation, simply reverses it. So 'unqualified' splits along two paths: a person can be unqualified because they lack the required skills or credentials, while a statement can be unqualified because it carries no limiting conditions, that is, it is absolute. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the silent ending of 'qualify' shifts to -ified, and the unstressed vowel after 'qual' is easy to misjudge.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• qualif- (from qualify, ultimately Latin qualis 'of what kind')
• -ied (adjective ending)