Skip to main content
unswallowable

unswallowable

1 9.3
Too hard or unpleasant to accept
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈswɑloʊəbl/
: inaceptable
  • Many found the politician's excuses to be unswallowable and refused to support his campaign.

Examples

  • After hearing the details of the scandal, the community deemed the mayor's explanations unswallowable.

  • Her claim that the project would succeed without sufficient funding was unswallowable for the investors.

  • "That, however, is the height of pedantry, and an unswallowable mouthful at the top of any page not a document: the date in full -- the ninth of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-one.

    Blog text (30)

Synonyms

unthinkable
vsunswallowable
80 5.7

Impossible to imagine or accept as an option

is about being unacceptable or intolerable rather than merely unimaginable
intolerable
vsunswallowable
41 4.9

So unpleasant or painful that you cannot bear it

is about mental or moral acceptance rather than physical endurance
inconceivable
vsunswallowable
40 7.4

Impossible to imagine or believe

expresses inability to accept or tolerate rather than low probability
impossible
vsunswallowable
35 3.3

A person who is very difficult to deal with

focuses on difficulty to accept or believe rather than on difficult people
unsupportable
vsunswallowable
4 6.8

No one can show it is right

measures refusal by difficulty to accept rather than lack of justification
unendurable
vsunswallowable
4 8.0

Too unpleasant or painful to bear

is used for mental refusal or disbelief rather than long physical hardship
insupportable
vsunswallowable
  • Formal
2 7.2

Too unpleasant or extreme to bear

focuses on endurance and acceptance rather than on imaginability
undefendable
vsunswallowable
1 7.4

Too weak to be protected from attack or criticism

is about being hard to accept or believe rather than being criticisable
unsufferable
vsunswallowable
1 8.4

So bad or strong that you cannot stand it

applies more to ideas or actions that cannot be believed or tolerated

Antonyms

392 2.5

Good enough for a particular use or standard

Easy to accept or believe even if unpleasant

How Acceptable

acceptable
392 2.5
reasonable
179 2.2
questionable
162 3.9
unacceptable
218 3.2
unswallowable
1 9.3
intolerable
41 4.9

Surface Forms

unswallowable positive

Morphology

unswallowable = swallowable (semi-transparent) = un + swallow + able

Although the form is un- + swallow + -able, the sense depends on the figurative use of 'swallow' = 'accept,' which may not be obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Unswallowable is built from un- 'not', swallow 'to accept or believe', and -able 'can'. So it means 'not possible to accept or tolerate', like when someone says 'I can't swallow that' about an idea or excuse.