incommensurable

Examples

• All

• A heroic and a contemplative life are incommensurable if they are not fully comparable by a common measure.

  Academic text (1999)

• But admitting that some of our values are incommensurable with others is a harder task.

  Academic text (1998)

• And so this is something that is yet higher and incommensurable with these other orders.

• To choose against one of the basic, incommensurable goods is to distort one's character or identity.

  Academic text (1990)

• Such standards are incommensurable since no shared standard exists to adjudicate among them.

  Academic text (1999)

• Instead, I would argue that these two religious outlooks are simply incommensurable.

  Academic text (1999)

• Different people and different societies pursue some incommensurable and conflicting moral values over others.

  Academic text (1999)

• Finally, you can believe in the incommensurable value of each culture, non-aesthetically, only if you are a relativist.

  Academic text (1999)

• If some ways of life conflict and are incommensurable, why should all morally decent societies be even minimally liberal?

  Academic text (1999)

• Teenek communities are not separate, incommensurable cultures, and Teenek people are not bounded and autonomous selves.

  Academic text (2008)

Synonyms

I

incomparable

vsincommensurable

20 6.0

So good or special that nothing else matches it

is a neutral technical word used for lacking a common standard

I

immeasurable

vsincommensurable

14 5.5

So large or great you cannot say how big

focuses on extreme magnitude rather than absence of a comparison standard

I

incalculable

vsincommensurable

13 8.1

Too great to measure or count

is about extreme quantity rather than missing a shared measurement basis

U

unquantifiable

vsincommensurable

1 7.8

Impossible to measure or show with a number

includes inability to compare without a shared measure or standard

U

unmeasurable

vsincommensurable

1 6.2

Too large or without clear limits to say how big it is

can also signal lack of a common scale for direct comparison

M

measureless

vsincommensurable

• Literature

1 7.5

Very large in size or number with no clear limit

focuses on boundless magnitude rather than lack of a common standard

U

uncomparable

vsincommensurable

7.4

Too different to judge together

also cannot be measured or compared because no common standard exists

U

unfigurable

vsincommensurable

• Specialized

9.9

Not able to be measured in numbers

also prevents comparison when no common standard exists

N

nonmeasurable

vsincommensurable

7.2

You cannot give a number or amount for it

also blocks comparison when there is no common measuring standard

I

immensurable

vsincommensurable

9.9

Too great to measure

emphasizes size and not lack of a common way to compare

Antonyms

C

commensurable

• Specialized

9.9

Can be measured with the same unit, like centimeters

How Different

incommensurable

• Formal

1 9.9

disparate

37 7.9

distinct

168 3.5

different

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology