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Unreasonably

Podcast 1 · Introduction

Unreasonably /ʌnˈriː.zən.ə.bli/ · adverb

A short documentary narration — meaning, origin, and how the word is used.

In this course, unreasonably means in a way that is not guided by. The introduction ties that sense to unreasonable. See the Cambridge English entry and the Merriam-Webster entry. Encyclopedic background is in Unreasonably.

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Podcast 2 · Daily Use

In Conversation

Two British speakers using "unreasonably" naturally in everyday talk.

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Podcast 3 · Prompt Engineering

Prompting with "unreasonably"

An instructor and developer explore real, copy-ready AI prompts built around the word.

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Transcript: “Unreasonably” vocabulary micro-course

Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Unreasonably for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.

Podcast 1 — Introduction & meaning

Narrator: Today's word is "unreasonably" — an adverb, pronounced /ʌnˈriː.zən.ə.bli/, with the stress on 'rea'.

Narrator: Unreasonably means in a way that is not guided by good sense — to an excessive, unfair, or unjustified degree.

Narrator: In plain English, if something is unreasonably expensive, it's far too pricey; behaving unreasonably means acting unfairly or over the top.

Narrator: It often intensifies an adjective — 'unreasonably high', 'unreasonably difficult', 'unreasonably long'.

Narrator: The word is the adverb of 'unreasonable', built from 'un-' plus 'reasonable' plus the adverb ending '-ly'.

Narrator: Like its parent, it traces to 'reason', from Latin 'ratio' — so it means in a way lacking fair judgement.

Narrator: It is used to stress that something goes beyond what is fair, sensible, or justified by the circumstances.

Narrator: In tone it is everyday and emphatic — a precise way to say 'unfairly so' or 'excessively'.

Narrator: So remember: unreasonably means to an unfair or excessive degree — beyond what good sense would allow.

Read podcasts 2 and 3

Podcast 2 — In conversation

Speaker A: The hotel was unreasonably expensive for what it was — tiny room, no view, and a fortune a night.

Speaker B: That's the word exactly — unreasonably expensive, meaning far more than was fair.

Speaker A: Right. And the queue was unreasonably long too — we waited nearly two hours.

Speaker B: Ouch. A common mistake is using 'unreasonably' when you just mean 'very'.

Speaker A: Ah — so 'very long' is just lengthy, but 'unreasonably long' means unfairly, excessively long?

Speaker B: Exactly. 'Unreasonably' carries that sense of being beyond what's acceptable, not merely a lot.

Speaker A: Good distinction. And it describes behaviour too — 'he reacted unreasonably'.

Speaker B: Yes — acting without fair judgement. It usually intensifies, like 'unreasonably harsh'.

Speaker A: Close synonyms? 'Excessively', 'unfairly', and 'unjustifiably'.

Speaker B: Though 'excessively' is just about amount, while 'unreasonably' adds that note of unfairness.

Speaker A: So unreasonably means to an unfair, excessive degree.

Speaker B: More than good sense would allow.

Podcast 3 — Prompt engineering

Speaker B: Let's use "unreasonably" in AI prompts — it is precise for flagging things that are excessively so: unreasonably slow, unreasonably large, unreasonably complex — beyond acceptable.

Speaker A: So unreasonably in a prompt means flag something that's excessive beyond what's acceptable?

Speaker B: Exactly. For performance, you'd write:

Prompt: Find everything in my app that loads unreasonably slowly. Flag any page or query that takes unreasonably long — over two seconds — explain why, and suggest the fastest fix to bring it back to a sensible speed.

Speaker B: The word unreasonably sets a fairness threshold — not just slow, but slower than is acceptable.

Speaker A: Very focused. What about code complexity?

Speaker B: Try this:

Prompt: Scan my codebase for unreasonably complex functions. Flag any function that's unreasonably long or deeply nested beyond easy reading, and suggest how to split each one into clear, manageable parts.

Speaker A: So it catches the excessive ones.

Speaker B: Right. For bundle size:

Prompt: Check my app for unreasonably large dependencies. Flag any package that's unreasonably heavy for what it does, show its size, and suggest a lighter alternative so the bundle stays sensibly small.

Speaker A: What about API responses?

Speaker B: Here you go:

Prompt: Find endpoints returning unreasonably large payloads. Flag any response that's unreasonably big, add pagination or trim unused fields, so the API never sends far more data than the client reasonably needs.

Speaker A: Could unreasonably flag UX friction too?

Speaker B: Yes:

Prompt: Audit my signup for unreasonably many steps. Flag any flow that asks for unreasonably much up front, and trim it to the essentials, so users aren't put off by an excessively long, unfair process.

Speaker A: So "unreasonably" means excessive beyond what's acceptable.

Speaker B: Exactly — a precise word that makes the AI flag whatever crosses a fair threshold.