Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not productive; idle.
  • adjective Economics Adding nothing to exchangeable value.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not productive; barren; more especially, not producing large crops; not making profitable returns for labor: as, unproductive land; in political economics, not increasing the quantity or exchangeable value of articles of consumption: as, unproductive labor.
  • Not producing some specified effect or result: with of: as, acts unproductive of good.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not productive; useless; fruitless.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not producing or capable of producing
  • adjective not producing desired results

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ productive

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word unproductive.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.