unproductive
/ˌʌn.pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/adjective
unproductive is spelled U-N-P-R-O-D-U-C-T-I-V-E: 12 letters and 4 syllables. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, unproductive means “Not productive; useless; fruitless” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in unproductive?
| Letters | 12: U-N-P-R-O-D-U-C-T-I-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words; the 25,367th 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 unproductive?
Unproductive appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th 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 unproductive?
- /ˌʌn.pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/
Unproductive has 4 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: En-us-unproductive.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of unproductive
- more unproductive comparative
- most unproductive superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does unproductive mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Not productive; useless; fruitless.
Juggling is an amusing pastime, but generally unproductive.
- 2
No longer used to produce new words (see examples).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Unproductive in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense not productive:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | improductif |
| German | unproduktiv |
| Portuguese | improdutivo |
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.