Thesaurus-Artikel: not available

These words are all used when you are not available to do something or talk to someone.

The most common word for this, and the word with the broadest meaning, is busy. Busy implies that you have other things planned and that is why you are unavailable.

The opposite of busy is free.

If you are tied up, you are not available because you are doing other things, usually meetings. Tied up is common in business contexts.

Unavailable is also used in business contexts to say that you are busy with something else.

The opposite of unavailable is available. Unavailable is much more common than available in this use.

In formal contexts, if you are not able to do something because you have something else planned, you can say you are engaged. Engaged generally refers to social plans and not work plans.

In UK English, if you cannot do something because you are doing something else, you can say that you have (got) something on. Have (got) something on is usually used of social plans.