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unguessable

unguessable

1 8.8
Very hard to guess or predict
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈɡɛsəbl/
translation icon : imposible de adivinar
  • Some iron despair, such as only an unguessable being from the Gray formless void could have felt before, too hideously alien for any human creature to endure.

Some iron despair, such as only an unguessable being from the Gray formless void could have felt before, too hideously alien for any human creature to endure.

Examples

  • With such intricate clues, the mystery's resolution felt unguessable until the very end.

  • Soft green light bathed them; unguessable shapes surrounded them.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Only then would we have learned that the pool's chill depths were unguessable, untainted, and deep enough for the worst of happenings.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • Her tight auburn curls were a miracle of modern cosmetology, their true color and texture unguessable.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • The smells were now those you might expect of any Moscow gathering: perfume, marijuana and cigarette smoke, bad breath, the heat of people pressed together under the sickly lighting, crowded into an unguessable number of rooms.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • When I was eighteen, there were two women of unguessable middle ages who gave tours—the type of people who coughed into the back of their hands and started off their sentences with the phrase "In this day and age."

    Fiction book (2000)
  • The challenge was to solve the riddle, which was so complex that its answer seemed completely unguessable.

  • Her reasoning behind the decision was unguessable, leaving everyone confused about her motives.

Synonyms

unforeseeable
vsunguessable
5 6.7

Impossible to know before it happens

can be extremely hard to predict rather than absolutely impossible
imponderable
vsunguessable
  • Formal
1 9.2

Hard to predict or measure exactly

focuses on difficulty of prediction or guessing rather than measuring

Antonyms

189 2.5

Easy to guess what will happen

1 2.7

Easy to find out from information or clues

How Predictable

obvious
1.0
predictable
189 2.5
uncertain
149 2.8
unpredictable
163 4.4
unguessable
1 8.8

Surface Forms

unguessable positive

Morphology

unguessable = guessable (transparent) = un + guess + able

Formed by adding the productive negative prefix 'un-' to 'guessable' (guess + -able), yielding a clear negation meaning 'not able to be guessed'.

Etymology

Unguessable joins un- 'not' with guess 'to try to know' and -able 'can be'. So something unguessable is 'not able to be guessed', which is why it means very hard or impossible to predict.