Dictionary

unnavigable en · ADJ

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 navigable English unnavigable From un- + navigable.

Meanings

1. Not navigable: difficult or impossible to navigate.
   • Near-synonym: impassible
   • unnavigable website
2. (of waters) Not navigable: difficult or impossible to navigate. ▸ Impossible to sail through; impassible to watercraft, unusable as a waterway (for example, too shallow).
   • A road journey of 70 miles past unnavigable rapids leads to Juba, from which it is seven days' steaming down river through to Kosti, on the Sudan Railways. 1950 May, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Tanganyika Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 298:
   • Nang county is the name given to the present administrative division of E Dakpo, the principal gateway to the sacred mountain of Tsari, and the region through which the Brahmaputra River cuts its way through an unnavigable 33 km horse-shoe gorge as it flows towards Longpo and Kongpo. 1996 January, “Southern Tibet”, in Gyurme Dorje, editor, Tibet Handbook: with Bhutan, Passport Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 288, column 1:
   • The vast plateau of the Massif Central was still the fortress it had been when the Arverni tribes held out against the Romans. Its rivers were unnavigable and its links to the rest of France practically non-existent. 2007, Graham Robb, “Chapter 1: The Undiscovered Continent”, in The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography, W.W. Norton and Company, →ISBN, page 21:
3. (of a path, qualifier:trail; or route; trail; or route) Not navigable: difficult or impossible to navigate. ▸ That is totally impassible: cannot be used for any reason.
   • The trail was unnavigable since the flood washed it away.

Forms

Antonyms

navigable · navigable · navigable

Deriveds

unnavigableness · unnavigably

Relateds

navigable waters · navigation channel

Synonyms

impassible · innavigable · innavigable · innavigable · impassible · impassible

Translations (13)

gv neuhiaullagh (not navigable) · grc ἄπλωτος (not navigable) · gv do-hiaulley (not navigable) · ga dosheolta (not navigable) · el αδιάπλευστος (not navigable) · fi kulkukelvoton (not navigable) · pt inavegável (not navigable) · gl innavegábel (not navigable) · gv neuhiaullee (not navigable) · fr innavigable (not navigable) · es innavegable (not navigable) · ru несудохо́дный (not navigable) · ca innavegable (not navigable)