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Glite Dictionary
unpicturable

unpicturable

9.2
Impossible to show in a picture
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈpɪkʧərəbəl/
translation icon : inrepresentable
  • The second captures the elusive, indeed, unpicturable qualities of atmosphere, light, and temperature, allying these conditions with the ineffable movements of the mind.

Examples

  • The unpicturable feelings of loss overwhelmed him as he stood at the empty house.

  • That strange, unpicturable quantum world needs very abstract mathematics for its understanding, ultimately the mathematics of spontaneously broken gauge theories.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Her thoughts about the future were so complex and unpicturable that she struggled to express them.

  • The artist aimed to capture the unpicturable essence of music in her painting.

Synonyms

unrepresentable
vsunpicturable
  • Specialized
1 8.8

Something that a computer system cannot show or describe

is specific to being impossible as a visual image rather than any form
uncapturable
vsunpicturable
8.2

Too special to show well in a photo, video or words

is impossible to form or imagine as a visual image
unpaintable
vsunpicturable
6.8

A thing artists cannot paint well on a canvas

is about being impossible to imagine or show visually rather than only by paint

Antonyms

picturable
7.0

Can be imagined clearly or shown as a drawing

How Picturable

depicted
3.2
representable
  • Specialized
6.5
unpicturable
9.2

Surface Forms

unpicturable positive

Morphology

unpicturable = picturable (transparent) = un + picture + able

The negation 'un-' straightforwardly reverses the adjectival meaning 'picturable' (able to be pictured).

Etymology

Unpicturable breaks into un- 'not', picture 'a picture', and -able 'can be'. So it means 'not able to be shown in a picture', which is why we use it for things that are too hard to imagine or draw.