unless
Except on a specified condition; if not.
Example
“Unless part of the staff, you are not allowed beyond this point.”
Other meanings
If not; used with counterfactual conditionals.
Except if; used with hypothetical conditionals.
Related words
- precisely unless
- unlesss
- unless and until
- until and unless
Example sentences
Word history
From Middle English "unlesse".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “unless” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.