unless

/ənˈlɛs/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/ʊnˈlɛs/

unless conjunction: except on a specified condition; if not.

Conjunction

unless

Except on a specified condition; if not.
- I’m leaving unless I get a pay rise.
- You can't go out unless it stops raining.
If not; used with counterfactual conditionals.
- Who would know of Alexander or Caesar, or would respect the Stoics or the Peripatetics, unless they had been distinguished by the memorials of writers?1159, John of Salisbury, Policraticus, edited by Cary J. Nederman, Cambridge University Press, 1990, page 3 (Google Books view)
- And Joab said, As God liveth, unless thou hadst spoken, surely then in the morning the people had gone up every one from following his brother.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Samuel 2:27
Except if; used with hypothetical conditionals.
- Q. If Lieutenant P. had given the word "Fire," would you have fired, and at what?—A. I should not have known, unless he had told me what to fire at.1809, The Naval Chronicle for 1809: Containing a General and Biographical History of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom with a Variety of Original Papers on Nautical Subjects. Vol. XXII. (from July...
- Lie down and finish out the night, since you are here; but, for heaven's sake! don't repeat that horrid noise: nothing could excuse it, unless you were having your throat cut!1847, Emily Brontë, chapter III, in Wuthering Heights

unless meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Telugu

unless in Hindi

except on a specified condition: जब तक jab tak

unless in Tamil

except on a specified condition: தவிர tavira

unless in Bengali

except on a specified condition: না হলে

unless in Telugu

except on a specified condition: తప్ప tappa

More languagesFewer languages

unless in Malayalam: അല്ലാതെ allāte
unless in Gujarati: જ્યાં સુધી jyā̃ sudhī
unless in Sinhala: නම් මිස nam misa
unless in Pashto: پرته لدې چې
unless in Arabic: إِلَّا ʔillā
unless in Malay: melainkan
unless in Indonesian: kecuali
unless in Persian: مگر اینکه magar inke
unless in Thai: เว้นแต่ wêntæ̀, จนกว่า cnkẁā
unless in Vietnamese: trừ phi, trừ khi
unless in Myanmar: မဟုတ်လျှင် ma.huthlyang

Examples of unless in a sentence

Unless part of the staff, you are not allowed beyond this point.
Secondly, When a body is once in motion it will continue to move forever, unless something stops it.1839, Denison Olmsted, A Compendium of Astronomy, page 95:
Unless someone like you...cares a whole awful lot...nothing is going to get better...It's not.1971, Dr. Seuss, The Lorax:
Unless He were omnipotent, we could not be sure of His ability to bless us.1867, William Robinson Pirie, Natural Theology: An Inquiry Into the Fundamental Principles of Religious, Moral, and Political Science, page...

All 40 example sentences with unless

Antonyms of unless

Forms of unless

alternative form	unlesse
alternative form	unlessen

Origin of unless

From Middle English unlesse, earlier on lesse (modern on + less), from (not) on lesse (than) (“(not) on a less compelling condition (than)”). The quality of negation in the word and the lack of stress changed on to un-.

Words formed from unless

precisely unless
unlesss
unless and until
until and unless

Words that rhyme with unless

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about unless

What does unless mean?: Unless means except on a specified condition; if not.
What is unless in Hindi?: Unless in Hindi is जब तक (jab tak). See Unless meaning in Hindi.
How do you use unless in a sentence?: Unless part of the staff, you are not allowed beyond this point.
What part of speech is unless?: Unless is a conjunction.
How do you pronounce unless?: Unless is pronounced /ənˈlɛs/.

Words near unless in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: unless (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-unless.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-unless.wav.

Cite this entry: “unless.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unless. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.