Unprofitable Meaning
/ʌnˈpɹɑf.ɪ.təbl̩/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjNot making a profit.
nounA person or thing that fails to make a profit.
Sentence Examples
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world.
The investor class underwrites a lot of unprofitable startups.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The company decided to close the factory because it was ____ and losing money.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The business became ____ after the costs of materials increased significantly over the last several many months today.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English profitable English unprofitable From un- + profitable.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The undermediators are not required, have nothing properly to do, no peculiar duty to perform; but are an unprofitable or inutile set of beings sitting down and looking at each other through want of other occupation."
— 1840, John Rogers, Anti-popery: Or, Popery Unreasonable, Unscriptural, and Novel, page 191:
"Soon after breakfast Miss Matilda, having galloped and blundered through a few unprofitable lessons, and vengeably thumped the piano for an hour, in a terrible humour with both me and it, because her mama would not give her a holiday, […]"
— 1847, Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey:
"In some places, however, quartz reefs, payably auriferous while in Silurian rock, have been followed down to subjacent granite, and have there been found to thin out and become unprofitable […]"
— 1887, R. A. Murray, Victoria. Geology and Physical Geography, page 126:
"In addition, over 350 little-used stations were closed, and reductions were made in unprofitable train services."
— 1959 August 26, “Re-Appraisal of the Modernisation of British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 520:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The company decided to close the factory because it was ____ and losing money.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The business became ____ after the costs of materials increased significantly over the last several many months today.