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Glite Dictionary
uneconomic

uneconomic

2 6.7
Not making enough money to be worth doing
  • adjective
  • /ˌʌnɪˈkɒnəmɪk/
translation icon : no rentable
  • Investing in that project is considered uneconomic due to the high costs involved.
  • make the project uneconomic
  • rendered uneconomic
  • conditions are uneconomic

Examples

  • As a result, Canadian firms can now undertake research projects that would be uneconomic if they were confined to serving the domestic market.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Deposits that were previously uneconomic now begin to be extracted.

    Academic text (2016)

  • No, they run this way because it is uneconomic to run them any other way.

    Blog text (5)

  • There must be closures of uneconomic coal mines.

    The Iron Lady (2011)

  • We expect a plateau at that level because pressures on corn prices would very likely render higher levels uneconomic.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Other desirable technologies, such as cleaner fuels for vehicles, are clearly uneconomic in today's marketplace.

    Academic text (1991)

  • To be sure, the collapse of the USSR demonstrated the harmful, resource-misallocating, and uneconomic nature of the socialist state.

    Blog text (32)

  • Amazon was using e-book discounting to destroy bookselling, making it uneconomic for physical bookstores to keep their doors open.

    Blog text (5)

  • Technological innovations that made it possible to extract oil and natural gas from previously uneconomic geologic formations diffused rapidly in the 2000s.

    Academic text (2016)

  • Running the factory at that scale is uneconomic and leads to substantial losses.

Synonyms

inefficient
vsuneconomic
58 3.5

Not using time, work, or money well

emphasizes lack of financial gain or profitable use rather than just poor efficiency
wasteful
vsuneconomic
48 3.0

Using more money or things than you need

focuses on failing to produce financial benefit, not only on wasting resources
unprofitable
vsuneconomic
11 4.9

Not making money for a person or business

focuses on wasting resources and not producing financial benefit rather than profit only
uneconomical
vsuneconomic
1 5.6

Something that wastes a lot of money, time, or energy

has the same meaning but appears as a different word form in writing
profitless
vsuneconomic
1 5.5

Not making money or giving any useful result

emphasizes inefficient resource use and cost issues rather than only profit absence
noneconomic
vsuneconomic
1 5.5

Not about money, trade, or profit but about other values

focuses on inefficient or unprofitable resource use rather than being unrelated to finance

Antonyms

profitable
191 3.8

Makes more money than it costs

economic
52 3.4

Making money or saving more than it costs

How Economical

profitable
191 3.8
economical
23 3.8
uneconomic
2 6.7
wasteful
48 3.0

Surface Forms

uneconomic positive

Morphology

uneconomic = economic (transparent) = un + economic

The negative prefix 'un-' straightforwardly negates the adjective 'economic', producing the opposite meaning.

Etymology

The word uneconomic starts with un- meaning 'not' and the rest comes from economic, from economy meaning 'managing money or resources'. So, uneconomic means 'not making good or profitable use of resources'.