unnameable

Examples

• All

• These memories, which he was stimulating and re-enhancing, were the closest he could come to recapturing something infinitely precious but unnameable and indefinable.

  Fiction book (2002)

• More than chords and fingerings, this sound was broad and wide, a channel to something unnameable.

  Fiction book (1992)

• One of the best things about your writing and teaching is your ability to put unnameable things into words for many people.

  Blog text (14)

• And he had been frightened, a kind of deep, unnameable anxiety shaking him up, keeping him from sleeping.

  Fiction book (1995)

• A current of fever suffused Effie's body, some unnameable feeling.

  Fiction book (1997)

• Her throat tightened with an unnameable anguish.

  Fiction book (1994)

• Her dark hair tumbled over her forehead, and the profile of her face stirred unnameable emotions in him.

  Fiction book (1995)

• Natalie screamed again, the terror so enormous that it was unnameable; impervious to words or her own thoughts.

  Fiction book (1997)

• What takes place within me then is itself something unknowable and unnameable—it is neither salvation, enlightenment, liberation, nor the great bliss.

  Academic text (1990)

• The artist captured an unnameable beauty in his painting that left everyone in awe.

Synonyms

U

unspeakable

vsunnameable

58 7.2

Too terrible to describe in words

is neutral about moral intensity, focusing on general unnameability

I

indescribable

vsunnameable

21 5.4

So wonderful or strange that words cannot show it

is a neutral claim of being impossible to name or express

I

ineffable

vsunnameable

• Formal

8 9.5

So great that words cannot describe it

is a plain statement of being unable to name or describe

I

indefinable

vsunnameable

4 6.9

Hard to describe or explain in words

is broader, stating utter inability to name or describe

I

inexpressible

vsunnameable

3 7.5

A feeling so strong that you cannot describe it in words

phrases the idea as inability to name, describe, or express

U

undefinable

vsunnameable

3 6.8

Hard to describe exactly in words

claims simple impossibility to name or express, not only precision limits

U

unnamable

vsunnameable

1 7.7

Too hard to describe in words

is presented here as the primary spelling form

U

unsayable

vsunnameable

1 8.5

Too hard to put into words

asserts an absolute inability to name, describe, or express

U

untellable

vsunnameable

9.9

So great you cannot describe it in words

states general impossibility without stressing great intensity

U

unspecifiable

vsunnameable

8.5

Impossible to describe exactly

is a general assertion of being impossible to name or express

Antonyms

N

nameable

1 3.5

You can tell what it is by its name

How Nameable

nameable

1 3.5

unnameable

1 7.8

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology