Word.ws English Dictionary

unoperative

unoperative is the obsolete form of inoperative.

Meaning of inoperative

Adjective

inoperative (not comparable)

  1. Not working or functioning; either idle or broken.
    • Let me see if I can dial this number right quick / "I am sorry, the government you have elected is inoperative / Click. Inoperative"1974, “H2Ogate Blues”, in Winter in America, performed by Gil Scott-Heron
  2. No longer legally binding.

Origin of unoperative

From un- + operative.

Questions about unoperative

What is unoperative the obsolete form of?
Unoperative is the obsolete form of inoperative.

Words near unoperative in the dictionary

  1. unoperable
  2. unoperated
  3. unoperatic
  4. unoperating
  5. unoperationalized
  6. unoperative
  7. unoperculate
  8. unoperculated
  9. unopined
  10. unopinionated
  11. unopinionatedly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unoperative (page history and authors); inoperative (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.

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