Dictionary

irrecognizable en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ɪˈɹɛkəɡnaɪzəbəl/ (General-American)
• /ɪɹɪˈkɒɡnɪzəbəl/ (obsolete)
• /ɪˈɹɛkənaɪzəbəl/ (General-American, nonstandard)
• /ɪˈɹɛkə(ɡ)naɪzəbəl/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From ir- + recognizable.

Meanings

1. (archaic, not-comparable, rare) Unable to be recognized.
   • [T]here remains no trace of their having ever existed—outside of course of the family names which are now preserved, though some of them in an almost irrecognizable form. 1902 March 15, “Judge Endlich on Early Life in Berks”, in Reading Eagle, USA, retrieved 26 Aug 2010, page 11:
   • The immortal gods are there (quite irrecognizable under these disguises), and also the lowest broken valets. 1850, Thomas Carlyle, “The Stump Orator”, in Latter Day Pamphlets:
   • The loamy ground on which I lay, the scattered fragments of the cairn beside me, and the rocks and junipers, were irrecognizable as if they had belonged to some other planet than ours. c. 1933, Clark Ashton Smith, “The Light from Beyond”, in The White Sybil and Other Stories, 2005 edition, page 142:

Forms

Deriveds

irrecognizably · irrecognizability

Synonyms

unrecognizable