unknowability
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9.9
- noun
- /ʌnˌnoʊəˈbɪləti/
:
incognoscibilidad
- But at least some attempt should be made to find some answers, if only to try to get some purchase on their unknowability.
Examples
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As a discipline, art history is a conceptual and theoretical space figured through—perhaps even constituted through—the unknowability of its objects of inquiry.
Academic text (2007) -
He insisted that any assertions of God's unknowability threatened the reality of God's revelation and providence.
Academic text (2018) -
The persistent unknowability of our neighbors of other faiths reminds us of the limits of the human project in coming to know God.
Academic text (2007) -
In short, the unknowability of God is a formal, not an experiential attribute of the divine.
Academic text (1994) -
Andrew's just being more honest and actually understands randomness, variation, and unknowability.
Blog text (6) -
The quicker a person is to blame, the less they understand the true nature of our uncertain world, the unknowability of future causations.
Blog text (11) -
In the case of Maria, although she mentions that she had met Waymarsh before in the States, the latter does not remember her, a fact that highlights even more her ambiguous past and her unknowability.
Academic text (2018) -
One, the activist model, uses the unknowability of the remote to imply the knowability of the familiar, or at least its integrity (for one does not have to know oneself in order to deserve to be recognized).
Academic text (1994) -
The unknowability of the universe leaves many scientists searching for answers that may never come.
-
Philosophers often discuss the unknowability of certain truths that challenge our understanding of reality.
Synonyms
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9.9
A quality that you cannot understand or know the reasons for
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9.9
A state where something is very hard to understand
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9.9
Something that is very hard to understand
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9.9
A difficulty understanding handwriting, signs, or codes
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9.8
A state when something cannot be explained or understood
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9.9
The state of being impossible to imagine or believe
You cannot easily understand or picture it in your mind
Very hard to understand because the ideas are unclear or complicated
A situation that is too hard to imagine or accept
A state in which something is impossible to see or tell apart
Antonyms
How Knowable
Surface Forms
Morphology
unknowability = unknowable (transparent) = un + know + able + ity
The noun is formed by adding the productive suffix '-ity' to the clear adjective 'unknowable' (itself un- + know + -able), so the meaning is directly derivable.
Etymology
Unknowability is made of familiar parts: un- meaning 'not', know meaning 'to know', and ability meaning 'power to do something'. So, unknowability is the idea that something is 'not able to be known' or cannot be fully understood.