unspeakable en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
Etymology
From Middle English unspekable, equivalent to un- + speakable.
Meanings
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Incapable of being spoken or uttered.
1855-1882, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, book xv, The endless pride and outstretching of man, unspeakable joys and sorrows.
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Impossible to speak about.
It is true that during the first week hardly a day passed that Erskine did not address himself to Watt, on the subject of Watt's duties. But in the first week Watt's words had not yet begun to fail him, or Watt's world to become unspeakable.
1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
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Unfit or not permitted to be spoken or described.
The miser will remember his hoard of gold, the robber his ill-gotten wealth, the angry and revengeful and merciless murderers their deeds of blood and violence in which they revelled, the impure and adulterous the unspeakable and filthy pleasures in which they delighted.
1916, James Joyce, chapter III, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 142:
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Extremely bad or objectionable.
an unspeakable play
an unspeakable fool
Anyone who goes into a voting booth on November the 8th and comes out saying, “I feel a hundred percent great about what I just did in there!,” is either lying to themselves, or did something unspeakable in that booth! And that means, as uncomfortable as this is, everyone has to own the floors of whoever you vote for, whether they are a lying handsy narcissistic sociopath, a hawkish Wall Street-friendly embodiment of everything that some people can’t stand about politics, an ill-tempered mountain molester with a radical dangerous tax plan that even he can’t defend, or a conspiracy-pandering political neophyte with no clear understanding of how government operates and who once recorded this folk rap about the virtues of bicycling.
2016 October 16, “Third Parties”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 26, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:Yet to my horror I saw in its eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines a leering, abhorrent travesty on the human shape; and in its mouldy, disintegrating apparel an unspeakable quality that chilled me even more.
1926, H.P. Lovecraft, The Outsider:
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(not-comparable) That cannot be referenced in source code, due to having no usable name.
an instance of an unspeakable type
unspeakable field names
2008, Trey Nash, Accelerated C# 2008, page 509:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more unspeakable | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most unspeakable | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Deriveds
Relateds
head in the sand · polite fiction · censorship · Streisand effect · Voldemort effect · elephant in the room · emperor's new clothes · avoidance speech · algospeak · denialism · taboo · open secret
Synonyms
unutterable · undiscussable · inexpressible · unutterable · ineffable
Translations (33)
pl niewypowiedziany (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · cmn 說不得 /说不得 (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · eo nedirebla (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · grc ἄρρητος (unfit to be described) · te చెప్పరాని (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · fr inqualifiable (extremely bad) · nl onbeschrijfelijk (unfit to be described) · el ανείπωτος (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · ru неопису́емый (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · el άφατος (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · fi sanomaton (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · fr innommable (extremely bad) · el άρρητος (unfit to be described) · cs nevýslovný (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · got 𐌿𐌽𐌵𐌴𐌸𐍃 (unfit to be described) · ru несказа́нный (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · it indicibile (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · ca indicible (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · la infandus (extremely bad) · la infandus (unfit to be described) · ru непередава́емый (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · de unsäglich (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · fi sopimaton (unfit to be described) · es indecible (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · pt indizível (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · pl niewysłowiony (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · fi käsittämätön (extremely bad) · ja 言い知れぬ (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · fr indicible (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · fr innommable (unfit to be described) · fi saastainen (unfit to be described) · ja 口では言えない (incapable of being spoken or uttered) · fi sanoinkuvaamaton (incapable of being spoken or uttered)