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unidentifiable

unidentifiable

9 6.1
You cannot tell what something or someone is
  • adjective
  • /ˌʌnɪˈdɛntɪfaɪəbl/
translation icon : no identificable
  • She found an unidentifiable object in the garden that sparked her curiosity about its origin.
  • unidentifiable human remains
  • unidentifiable human
  • culturally unidentifiable

Do make them unidentifiable and make sure you you give us permission to share them if you want to.

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Examples

  • The coroner ultimately exhumed the remains of five victims and parts of at least eight additional unidentifiable corpses.

  • A faint noise in the distance remained unidentifiable until a door in the corridor slid open.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • April also found images from the Internet for students who wanted to focus on unidentifiable characters.

    Academic text (2015)
  • We hear all the unidentifiable sounds of night in the woods.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • There was an unusual, unidentifiable voice that appeared on that audio.

  • In the black-and-white image, we see a figure posed against a dark and unidentifiable background.

    Academic text (2014)
  • Of the dozens of witnesses, most admitted under questioning that they saw only a shadow or some unidentifiable form.

  • I think we'd notice the eighth unidentifiable person lurking in the shadows.

  • Meanwhile, Mariel struggled with unidentifiable coins, credit cards, phone cards, and Spanish recordings she couldn't understand.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • His eyes flared with an emotion, unidentifiable to Katya, that seemed to hover in the space between laughter and hurt.

    Fiction book (2002)

Synonyms

unidentified
vsunidentifiable
4.2

Not known or named

is permanently impossible to know who or what something is rather than temporarily unnamed
unknown
vsunidentifiable
629 2.3

Not known or named, often with no name given

refers to inability to tell particular person or thing apart by sight or name
anonymous
vsunidentifiable
47 4.8

Does not have special features that make it stand out

means something cannot be known as a specific person or thing, not merely plain
faceless
vsunidentifiable
38 5.9

A person or place with no features that make it stand out

is about being impossible to know who or what it is, not just plain-looking
untraceable
vsunidentifiable
28 6.6

Cannot be found or connected to where it started

relates to being hard to locate by search rather than simply unknowable
unrecognizable
vsunidentifiable
22 5.8

Hard to tell who or what something is because it looks very different

is generally impossible to tell who or what it is, not just after damage
unrecognized
vsunidentifiable
3 4.2

Not known or noticed by other people

is about being impossible to tell who or what something is rather than unacknowledged
undistinguishable
vsunidentifiable
8.2

Cannot be told apart from something else

implies inability to know who or what it is, not mere similarity to others
nondescript
vsunidentifiable
6.8

A person who does not stand out and is easy to forget

means something cannot be known as a specific person or thing rather than dull
incognizable
vsunidentifiable
  • Formal
9.9

Not possible for people to know or understand

means impossible to know or understand, not just hard to tell who something is

Antonyms

32 3.7

Able to be clearly recognized as a particular person or thing

How Identifiable

known
2 1.0
identifiable
32 3.7
unknown
629 2.3
unidentifiable
9 6.1

Surface Forms

unidentifiable positive

Morphology

unidentifiable = identifiable (transparent) = un + identify + able

The adjective is formed by adding the negative prefix 'un-' to 'identifiable' (identify + -able), a straightforward negation.

Etymology

The word unidentifiable is made from un- 'not', identify 'to know who or what something is' and -able 'can be'. So it means 'not able to be known or recognized'.