unavailable

Unavailable is an adjective in English that denotes not being accessible, obtainable, or at hand. It describes situations where something cannot be used or reached at a given time, whether due to absence, maintenance, restrictions, or stockouts. The word is formed with the negative prefix un- added to the adjective available.

In everyday language, unavailable can refer to people, objects, or services. For example, a person may be unavailable for a meeting, a product may be unavailable for purchase, or a service may be temporarily unavailable during maintenance. The term often implies temporary inaccessibility, though it can also indicate permanent unavailability in some contexts.

In libraries, archives, and inventories, items are marked unavailable when they are checked out, being repaired, restricted, or otherwise not accessible for loan or use. In technology and computing, unavailable is used to describe systems, resources, or data that cannot be retrieved or used. Network or service outages may cause a status of unavailable, and HTTP status codes such as 503 Service Unavailable indicate that a server cannot handle requests at the moment.

The noun form unavailability refers to the state of being unavailable. Related concepts include availability and accessible, as well as phrases that describe temporary or permanent inaccessibility. The interpretation of unavailable depends on context, including inventory, human scheduling, or system status.