unavailable
part of speech
adjective (unavailable)
meaning for a pupil
1) Not able to be got, bought or used right now. tree →
2) (of a person) Not free to meet, talk or help, because they are busy or away. tree →
sense in the lessons
Seen on websites, phone messages and shop shelves: «This item is currently unavailable». At school a teacher may be unavailable during a meeting. In maths problems, an unavailable item is left out of the total or choices.
examples
- Sorry, that size is unavailable at the moment. tree →
- The head teacher is unavailable until after lunch. tree →
- The game was unavailable because the server was down. tree →
- Fresh strawberries are unavailable in winter here. tree →
- The doctor was unavailable, so we saw the nurse. tree →
- If 3 of the 10 bikes are unavailable, only 7 can be hired. tree →
note
un- + available. Takes «an»: «an unavailable book». Often with «currently» or «temporarily». Do not confuse with «unaffordable» (too expensive): unavailable means you cannot get it at all just now.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «unavailable» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.