Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use unable in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, interjection, verb

Unable means not able; lacking a certain ability. Example: “Are you unable to mind your own business or something?”

Examples of unable by meaning

adjectiveNot able; lacking a certain ability.

  • Are you unable to mind your own business or something?
  • He played it back to Giggs, whose cross was headed in by Nani with the lurking Rooney unable to add a touch.2011 December 21, Tom Rostance, “Fulham 0-5 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport
  • A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul.2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21

interjectionIndicating that a requested course of action is not possible to carry out.

  • "November three seven kilo, climb and maintain twelve thousand." "Unable, we have pressurization problems. Maintaining nine thousand."

More sentences with unable

  • Police have been unable to ID the body found in the river.From the entry id
  • With his recent divorce still fresh in his mind, he was unable to concentrate on his work.From the entry fresh
  • Since the system outage, I've been unable to log in to my account.From the entry account
  • The police force were unable to deal with the sophistication of the criminal network.From the entry sophistication
  • My throat was so sore that I was unable to swallow.From the entry swallow
  • I was unable to put down The Stand: it was that exciting.From the entry put down
  • The Earth, which I esteem unable to reflect the rays of the Sun.From the entry esteem
  • He hounded me for weeks, but I was simply unable to pay back his loan.From the entry hound
  • The patient was unable to adduct his thumb after the injury.From the entry adduct
  • We puzzled over the curious-shaped lock, but were unable to discover how the key should be inserted.From the entry puzzle
  • The resolution, which speedily passed the Senate, was unable to gain a majority in the lower chamber.From the entry chamber
  • French knights at Agincourt were unable to broach the English line.From the entry broach
  • Being a person of slender means, he was unable to afford any luxuries.From the entry slender
  • Due to inclement weather, we will be unable to provide our deliverables.From the entry deliverable
  • Unable to garner even a modicum of support for his plan, he conceded to follow the others.From the entry modicum
  • I had my car repoed when I became unable to keep up the payments.From the entry repo
  • Since he was color blind he was unable to discriminate between the blue and green bottles.From the entry discriminate
  • He stood there speechlessly. The surprise had rendered him unable to make an intelligible reply.From the entry speechlessly
  • The fire raged for hours because they were unable to reach the shutoff for the gas line.From the entry shutoff
  • The school authorities, unable to take a joke, demanded the immediate removal of the satirical poster.From the entry take a joke
  • With his identity stolen, he became an unperson, unable to prove his existence to the government.From the entry unperson
  • We were unable to produce any dispositive evidence to support our case.From the entry dispositive
  • The omnibenevolent God, by definition, was unable to withhold forgiveness from his people.From the entry omnibenevolent
  • War-ridden countries are generally unable to provide basic services for their citizens.From the entry war-ridden
  • In this case of supermorbid obesity, the patient was unable to get out of bed.From the entry supermorbid
  • Since the image was lossily compressed, we were unable to recover the original.From the entry lossily
  • Troye was most sorryful for being unable to get along with the others.From the entry sorryful
  • Most pupils in the class are unable to get their long division right without help.From the entry get right
  • I'm unable to determine which is bigger.From the entry which
  • William was translated by the blow to the head he received, being unable to speak for the next few minutes.From the entry translate
  • Deserts are often infertile and unable to support vegetation.From the entry infertile
  • The home team took several shots on goal but was unable to capitalize until late in the game.From the entry capitalize
  • Blocked users will be unable to access their accounts indefinitely.From the entry blocked
  • "Her ladyship will be unable to attend tonight," he said, with a wink because he hadn't said why.From the entry ladyship
  • We met the new captain while we were taking enemy fire and were unable to observe the niceties of formal introductions.From the entry nicety
  • The tired France were unable to break down the German defence, so they brought on some fresh legs.From the entry fresh legs

Meaning of unable

  1. adjective Not able; lacking a certain ability.
  2. interjection Indicating that a requested course of action is not possible to carry out.
  3. verb To render unable; to disable.

Full definition of unable

Questions about unable in a sentence

How do you use unable in a sentence?
Unable is used as an adjective, interjection and verb. For example: “Are you unable to mind your own business or something?”
What is a short sentence with unable?
“I'm unable to determine which is bigger.”
What does unable mean?
Unable means not able; lacking a certain ability.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unable (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use unable in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/unable. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.