Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Being such that listening with comfort or pleasure is impossible.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective music, acoustics Of a sound quality or characteristic that a person cannot long listen to.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ listenable

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Examples

  • His radio show has devolved into something borderlining on unlistenable, which is too bad because, at the beginning, it had promise.

    Lose an Eye, it's a Sport 2009

  • And "unlistenable" is what I thought about the rest of the album when I first put it in my ears and then hid it under my bed from my parents.

    Jake Arky: Journey Of A Marshall Mathers Fan 2009

  • So it might be more a matter of identifying the particular kinds of unfavourable adjective that are most prone to subsequent reconsideration - "unlistenable" certainly springs to mind, perhaps because the gauntlet it throws down is so easy to pick up - and learning to keep an eye out for them.

    The Guardian World News 2010

  • I remember working with a guy who was just adamant that any MP3 file recorded at less than 224 Kbps was "unlistenable".

    VideoHelp.com Forum 2009

  • I remember working with a guy who was just adamant that any MP3 file recorded at less than 224 Kbps was "unlistenable".

    VideoHelp.com Forum 2009

  • suggesting in a review of Neil Young's Le Noise that the fact that this record had already been dubbed "unlistenable" by one "august rock critic" might actually be a good sign - had a series of intriguing ramifications that reached beyond the cut and thrust of everyday pop debate.

    The Guardian World News 2010

  • In many ways Emmy & Tim are the non-American answer to She & Him, the key difference being that their single isn't unlistenable horseshit and is, in fact, splendid.

    This week's new singles 2011

  • It featured an excruciatingly unlistenable "modern" live violin solo, full of jagged ups and downs.

    Hugh Muir's Diary 2011

  • Perhaps to make Canadian radio unlistenable for happless Yanks on vacation across the border?

    Matthew Yglesias » My Long-Awaited Revenge 2009

  • When people criticized us, they said one of two things: either our music was unlistenable, or things would never get as bad as our lyrics suggested.

    Tim Mohr: The Music and Mayhem of Atari Teenage Riot: An Interview with Alec Empire (Plus Free MP3!) Tim Mohr 2011

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