Definitions

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

  • adjective Beyond description; inexpressible.
  • adjective Inexpressibly bad or objectionable.
  • adjective Not to be spoken.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Incapable of being spoken or uttered; unutterable; ineffable; inexpressible.
  • Extreme; extremely bad: as, an unspeakable fool; an unspeakable play.
  • Not able to speak.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Not speakable; incapable of being uttered or adequately described; inexpressible; unutterable; ineffable.

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

  • adjective Incapable of being spoken or uttered; unutterable; ineffable; inexpressible.
  • adjective Unfit or not permitted to be spoken or described.
  • adjective Extremely bad or objectionable.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective defying expression or description
  • adjective too sacred to be uttered
  • adjective exceptionally bad or displeasing

Etymologies

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Examples

  • This is the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church where religious leaders say the shooting was devastating, but they also say it brought what they call unspeakable amounts of love afterwards.

    CNN Transcript Aug 3, 2008 2008

  • Being able to speak the unspeakable is very powerful.

    Oh. Oh, you guys. *snif* enderfem 2009

  • Being able to speak the unspeakable is very powerful.

    All of my artist friends *must* do this. ellen_kushner 2009

  • Being able to speak the unspeakable is very powerful.

    Saturday night miscellany feste_sylvain 2009

  • Being able to speak the unspeakable is very powerful.

    Thor's Day lynxreign 2009

  • Being able to speak the unspeakable is very powerful.

    Tew's Day! rosefox 2009

  • After local prejudice and the family's own emotional frailty result in unspeakable tragedy, the gravedigger's daughter, Rebecca, begins her astonishing pilgrimage into America, an odyssey of erotic risk and imaginative daring, ingenious self-invention, and, in the end, a bittersweetbut very "American" triumph.

    The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates: Book summary 2010

  • Being able to speak the unspeakable is very powerful.

    Odin's Day juushika 2009

  • Being able to speak the unspeakable is very powerful.

    Monday theferrett 2009

  • Being able to speak the unspeakable is very powerful.

    Wicked Faire? pnh 2009

Comments

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  • ...in full pursuit of the uneatable.

    August 17, 2008