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# unsuccessful

«unsuccessful» in Mova's school dictionary: **not achieving what was wanted or planned; failing** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective

### meaning for a pupil

Unsuccessful means not achieving what was wanted or planned; failing. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unsuccessful/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In school and everyday life: «an unsuccessful attempt», «unsuccessful experiment». In maths problems it counts failures: «7 of the 10 tries were unsuccessful». In formal letters: «we regret that your application was unsuccessful».

### examples

- My first try at the high jump was unsuccessful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unsuccessful/#x1)
- The search for the lost cat was unsuccessful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unsuccessful/#x2)
- Out of 12 shots, 5 were unsuccessful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unsuccessful/#x3)
- The experiment was unsuccessful, so we changed the method. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unsuccessful/#x4)
- Her application for the job was unsuccessful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unsuccessful/#x5)
- After several unsuccessful attempts, he finally whistled. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unsuccessful/#x6)
- All the King’s unsuccessful rivals had gone home in despair. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unsuccessful/#x7)

### note

Spelling: un + successful (two «c», two «s», one «l» at the end). Adverb: unsuccessfully. In maths: unsuccessful tries = total tries − successful tries.

### In the corpora

- ["Unsuccessful", in a letter about a job or a place, means rejected.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/34-failure-and-mistakes/16/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «unsuccessful» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unsuccessful/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.