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untold

untold

37 4.8
A very large amount that cannot be counted or measured
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈtoʊld/
: incalculable
  • The disaster caused untold suffering for the victims and their families.
  • untold misery
  • untold damage
  • untold numbers

And it's so convincing, and yet it's causing untold suffering.

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Examples

  • It gave him untold wealth and fame and allowed him to live the life most artists could only dream of.

  • There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

  • I want to scale and touch just an untold number of lives.

  • And this is sort of an untold story.

  • But what I'm interested in are the untold stories.

  • The first electronic mail message was sent in 1972, and volume has increased untold times since then.

    Academic text (1997)
  • At the center of that struggle is an untold legal history of local government reform during Reconstruction.

    Academic text (2017)
  • There will be violence that will cause untold harm to the parish and to the cause of religion.

    Academic text (1998)
  • In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.

  • Africa, land of great beauty and untold riches.

Synonyms

enormous
vsuntold
754 2.1

Very large in size, amount, or effect

is stronger, implying amounts beyond counting or measuring
vast
vsuntold
650 2.1

Very large in size or amount

is more extreme, suggesting uncountable or immeasurable magnitude
countless
vsuntold
248 2.5

There are so many that you cannot say how many

adds that such amounts may also be impossible to measure
infinite
vsuntold
184 4.2

Without limits or end

is narrower, focusing on being too many or too large to assess
immense
vsuntold
132 3.7

Very large in size, amount, or degree

leans more toward being too great to count or measure
endless
vsuntold
111 2.5

Very large in number that seems to have no limit

adds the idea of being also impossible to measure numerically
limitless
vsuntold
39 4.0

Very large and without any end

emphasizes instead being too great to count or measure
myriad
vsuntold
32 7.0

Very many, too many to count

is similar but also stresses impracticality of measuring extent
boundless
vsuntold
26 5.0

Having no limit in size or amount

is focused more on sheer uncountable or immeasurable scale
innumerable
vsuntold
20 5.4

Too many to count

is broader, also covering amounts too big to measure
immeasurable
vsuntold
14 5.5

So large or great you cannot say how big

is similar but also stresses many items that defy counting
incalculable
vsuntold
12 8.1

Too great to measure or count

is broader, applying to both counting and measuring impossibilities
uncounted
vsuntold
9 6.3

So many that you cannot say how many

extends this by including inability to measure total size
unbounded
vsuntold
5 6.3

Not limited in amount or size

stresses uncountability and inability to measure quantity
inestimable
vsuntold
3 8.6

So great that you cannot measure its value

extends this to both uncountable numbers and immeasurable size
numberless
vsuntold
3 6.0

So many that you cannot count them

adds the sense that size or amount cannot be measured either
measureless
vsuntold
  • Literature
1 7.5

Very large in size or number with no clear limit

includes that and also covers numbers too large to count
unnumbered
vsuntold
1 7.5

So many that you cannot count them

focuses more on being too many or too large to measure
innumerous
vsuntold
1 9.6

So many that you cannot count them

also covers being too great to measure or calculate
immensurable
vsuntold
9.9

Too great to measure

adds that the amount may also be too many to count
unnumberable
vsuntold
7.8

So many that you cannot count them

also implies those amounts may be beyond measurement or estimate
unnumerable
vsuntold
7.9

Too many to count

broadens to include those amounts being impossible to measure

Antonyms

37 3.7

Possible to find how much or how big something is

1 2.9

Present as separate things you can number, like an apple or a book

How Numerous

untold
37 4.8
numerous
442 2.0
many
∞ 1.0
several
∞ 1.0
few
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

untold positive

Morphology

untold = told (semi-transparent) = un + told

Formed by the productive prefix 'un-' plus 'told', but the sense 'incalculable' is an idiomatic extension from 'not told' (i.e., too many to be told) and may not be directly inferable by all learners.

Etymology

Untold comes from un- meaning 'not' and told from the verb 'tell', so it originally meant 'not told'. A helpful way to remember it is to imagine things so large, terrible, or private that people do not speak about them, and that's why untold now means 'too many to count' or 'very great'.