Dictionary

unmistakable en · ADJ

Pronunciation

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Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English mistake Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English unmistakable From un- + mistake + -able.

Meanings

1. Unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else.
   • Whenever the locomotive was working hard there was unmistakable evidence of its higher power than its predecessors in the brilliant and explosive arcing between conductor shoes and the third rail; this was particularly vivid in Quarry Tunnel in the down direction, where the display equalled anything we have seen on the frostiest of nights in an electrified third-rail area. 1959 March, “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 125:
   • And while that number is expected to shift back slightly into positive territory over this decade, fewer children today establishes an unmistakable implication for tomorrow: fewer adults available as consumers, workers and taxpayers. 2021 April 23, Ronald Brownstein, “The racist ‘replacement theory’ has it all backward”, in CNN:
   • Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing. Yet oddly enough I found here a far more unlikely substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed jar, that, by chance, I supposed had been really hermetically sealed. I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable. 1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter X, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC:

Forms

Antonyms

mistakable

Deriveds

unmistakably · unmistakableness

Translations (30)

sv omisskännlig (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · es inconfundible (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · it inconfondibile (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · nb umiskjennelig (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · gv cronnal (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · pt inconfundível (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · fi josta ei voi erehtyä (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · pl wyraźny (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · da umiskendelig (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · fi selvä (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · nl onmiskenbaar (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · hu félreismerhetetlen (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · de unverkennbar (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · ca inconfusible (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · pl charakterystyczny (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · de unüberhörbar (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · pl nieomylny (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · cs nezaměnitelný (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · sk nezameniteľný (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · eo senduba (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · fi kiistaton (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · fr reconnaissable entre mille (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · ko 오해의 여지가 없는 (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · pl niewątpliwy (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · fr reconnaissable entre tous (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · pl niepowtarzalny (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · gv gyn marranys (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · gv baghtal (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · de unverwechselbar (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else) · hu összetéveszthetetlen (unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else)