Unjust means unfair in a way that violates what's right or reasonable. When something is unjust, it treats people unequally or denies them what they deserve.

An unjust punishment would be getting detention for something you didn't do while the actual culprit goes free. An unjust rule might give special privileges to some students but not others for no good reason. If a teacher graded two identical papers differently because she liked one student better, that would be unjust.

The word carries moral weight: unjust situations violate our sense of fairness and rightness. A game with unequal rules might be unfair, but an unjust law or policy hurts real people in serious ways. History is full of unjust laws that denied people basic rights, which reformers and activists worked to overturn.

You might feel a situation is unjust when someone receives blame they doesn't deserve, when rules apply inconsistently, or when people face consequences that don't match their actions. The opposite is just, meaning fair and morally right.