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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

improper.

Unsuitable to needs or circumstances; inappropriate; inapt.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ɪmˈpɹɒp.ə/Received-Pronunciation/ɪmˈpɹɔp.ə/Australia/ɪmˈpɹɑ.pɚ/General-American
  1. Unsuitable to needs or circumstances; inappropriate; inapt.

  2. Not in keeping with conventional mores or good manners; indecent or immodest.

    improper conduct
  3. Not according to facts; inaccurate or erroneous.

  4. Not consistent with established facts; incorrect.

  5. Not properly named; See, for example, improper fraction.

  6. Not specific or appropriate to individuals; general; common.

    obsolete
  7. Of a complex random variable, correlated with its conjugate.

Where this word comes from

From Middle French impropre, from Latin improprius (“not proper”), from in- + proprius (“proper”). By surface analysis, im- + proper.

verb
  1. To appropriate; to assign (something, to someone) as a possession or prerogative.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English empropren, perhaps from an unattested Anglo-Norman variant enproprier of Anglo-Norman apropr(i)er, approprier, related to modern French approprier.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.