😶 Too strong for words 🤐 Impossible to say 🙏 Too sacred to say

unutterable

9.9

Too holy to be spoken aloud

adjective
/ʌnˈʌtərəbəl/

Literature

: inexpresable

The beauty of the sunrise filled her with an unutterable sense of peace and gratitude.

Examples

He experienced an unutterable joy upon seeing his long-lost friend after many years.
The realization that certain dimensions of human existence are entirely unutterable impels the speaker to mourn over the death of language and the death of his illusion about the "authority of language."

Academic text (2005)
The unutterable sadness of the occasion left everyone speechless and solemn.

Synonyms

ineffable

vsunutterable

Formal

8 9.5

So great that words cannot describe it

focuses on being unsayable from reverence rather than indescribability

unmentionable

vsunutterable

NSFW

4 7.9

Too embarrassing or not allowed to talk about

is used for silence from sacred respect rather than general taboo

unspeakable

vsunutterable

Literature

3 8.1

Too holy to say aloud

is the same meaning but expressed in a different form

unnameable

vsunutterable

Literature

9.9

Too holy or respected to say the name aloud

is the same idea but not limited to names only

Antonyms

speakable

1 4.5

Something you can say or put into words

Compounds

unutterable pain

Literature

8.6

A feeling of pain too strong to describe in words

How Sacred

unutterable

Literature

9.9

sacred

250 4.6

special

∞ 1.0

ordinary

683 1.0

Surface Forms

unutterable positive

Morphology

unutterable = utterable (transparent) = un + utter + able

The sense 'too sacred to be spoken' is a straightforward application of 'not able to be uttered' in a reverential context, so the morphological negation is clear.

Etymology

Unutterable comes from un- 'not' and utter 'to speak', so it can mean 'not to be spoken', as with a holy name that people do not say aloud.