unenviable
adjective
unenviable is spelled U-N-E-N-V-I-A-B-L-E: 10 letters and 5 syllables. It appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 69,884th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, unenviable means “Difficult, undesirable, or unpleasant; not to be envied” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in unenviable?
| Letters | 10: U-N-E-N-V-I-A-B-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words; the 69,884th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is unenviable?
Unenviable appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 69,884th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce unenviable?
Unenviable has 5 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-unenviable.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of unenviable
- more unenviable comparative
- most unenviable superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does unenviable mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Difficult, undesirable, or unpleasant; not to be envied.
Valjean was in the unenviable position of either living with the knowledge an innocent would suffer for his crime or revealing his true identity and going back to prison.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Unenviable in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense difficult, undesirable, or unpleasant:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | peu enviable |
| German | wenig beneidenswert, kaum zu beneidend |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does unenviable come from?
From un- + enviable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).