undesirably

adverb

as in unsatisfactorily

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of undesirably Both of these species are large aquatic rodents that influence ecosystems – beaver dam building changes how water moves, sometimes undesirably for land owners, while nutria are non-native and damaging to wetlands. — Alex Jensen, Fortune, 23 Dec. 2025 While some liners deliver an undesirably smudge-effect, Victoria Beckham Beauty perfectly plumps. — Kiana Murden, Vogue, 15 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for undesirably
  1. insufficiently
  2. inadequately
  3. unwisely
  4. pointlessly
Adverb
  • Or… 2) Miami is insufficiently impressed and spends its likely very high 2027 first-round draft pick on a QB with the clear intent for the rookie to soon replace Willis.
    — Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 4 Sep. 2026
  • Especially exciting to him was the German student movement, which combined support for liberation across the non-Western world with attacks on what the students considered the suffocating (and still insufficiently de-Nazified) Federal Republic.
    — Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of insufficiently
Adverb
  • In the last decade and a half, a carrousel of feuding political factions took turns governing, all inadequately.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2026
  • Last year Lee was questioned by legislators after the audit found staffing shortages and process failures had left thousands of cases inadequately investigated, including serious injuries and deaths.
    — Joe Rubin, Sacbee.com, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of inadequately
Adverb
  • Their retreat quickly spirals into a nightmare when one of the group discovers a book called the Naturom Demonto in the basement, and another unwisely reads aloud from it.
    — Brianna Zigler, Entertainment Weekly, 10 July 2026
  • Siobhan and Rekha collaborate to sort Oreos, but Grant spends this entire episode unwisely rushing into things and paying for it, mostly in humiliation.
    — Tasha Robinson, Vulture, 16 June 2026
Definition of unwisely
Adverb
  • These conflicts may only occasionally draw in American military forces, but the chaos will consistently demand attention and pointlessly consume resources.
    — MARC LYNCH, Foreign Affairs, 18 Aug. 2026
  • Don’t be pointlessly inscrutable.
    — Kim Scott, CNBC, 22 Apr. 2026
Definition of pointlessly

Browse Nearby Words

undesirableness
undesirably
undesired
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Cite this Entry

“Undesirably.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/undesirably. Accessed 5 Sep. 2026.

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