🛡️ Impossible to destroy 💻 Cannot be stopped

unkillable

7.5

A program or game character people cannot stop by normal methods

adjective
/ʌnˈkɪləbəl/

Specialized

: interminable

Some malware can create unkillable processes that resist deletion even when the user tries to remove them.

Examples

We discovered an unkillable application that continued running in the background despite our efforts to close it.
The program became unkillable after the system crashed, forcing us to restart the entire computer.
Unkillable!

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

Synonyms

unstoppable

vsunkillable

79 4.0

Impossible to prevent from continuing or reaching its goal

emphasizes resistance to normal endings rather than pursuing aims continuously

ineradicable

vsunkillable

1 8.8

Not possible to remove completely

limits this to being impossible to end by normal technical means

uninterruptible

vsunkillable

1 6.6

Keeps working without stopping after it starts

focuses on being impossible to end by normal means rather than only pausing

inexterminable

vsunkillable

9.9

Impossible to get rid of completely

applies to processes that cannot be ended by normal program controls

indefectible

vsunkillable

9.9

Cannot fail, decay, or be destroyed and always stays true

focuses on technical inability to be ended by normal means not abstract permanence

Antonyms

killable

1 6.9

Fit to be used for meat, for example adult fish or deer

How Killable

killable

1 6.9

persistent

82 4.9

unkillable

Specialized

7.5

Surface Forms

unkillable positive

unkillabler comparative

unkillablest superlative

Morphology

unkillable = killable (transparent) = un + kill + able

Derived by adding the negative prefix 'un-' to 'killable' (kill + -able); the meaning transfers straightforwardly to software/processes.

Etymology

The word unkillable is made of un- ('not'), kill ('to stop'), and -able ('can be'), so it describes something like a program or process that cannot be stopped by normal means.