Skip to main content
unrelatable

unrelatable

1 7.4
Hard to connect with or understand, especially emotionally
  • adjective
  • /ˌʌn.rɪˈleɪ.tə.bəl/
: incomprensible
  • If we never cross over into 'worldly' areas, then to non-Christians we are stuffy and unrelatable, period!

It's like the most unrelatable people on the face of the planet.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • The main character in the movie was so unrelatable that viewers struggled to connect with her story.

  • It's like the most unrelatable people on the face of the planet.

  • I'm sure this episode will be completely unrelatable to all of you because it deals with why do we eat?

  • Apparently, he didn't understand that actually working at a job and earning your own money made you unrelatable to Americans.

    Blog text (13)
  • I would like there to be more diverse heroes of all sorts because the world in which these characters live is at times one unrelatable to me.

    Blog text (33)
  • It's related to the opinion that men's stories are universal, but women's stories are a "special topic" or "unrelatable."

    Blog text (9)
  • So, in a nutshell, Marvel and Gunn can't hang their movie on such unrelatable characters as a talking raccoon and a plant thing, so they're going to be kept to the sidelines.

    Blog text (1)
  • Most of us think that Obama, despite his flaws, is a genuine, likable guy, contrasted with Romney, who was profoundly unrelatable, aloof, and willing to say or do anything to further his greatest motivation (his own ego).

    Blog text (33)
  • Many customers found the new policy unrelatable since it didn't address their real concerns.

  • During the debate, the candidate's ideas seemed unrelatable to the average citizen, making it hard for them to relate.

Synonyms

elusive
vsunrelatable
13 7.0

Hard to understand or describe, like the meaning of a symbol

focuses on being hard to connect with emotionally rather than hard to understand mentally
inscrutable
vsunrelatable
12 8.9

Hard to understand because it shows no clear meaning or feeling

describes emotional distance rather than cryptic mystery or unreadability
impenetrable
vsunrelatable
4 8.3

Very hard to understand

refers to being emotionally hard to reach rather than mentally obscure
ungraspable
vsunrelatable
1 8.6

Difficult to understand even after thinking about it

is about being hard to form an emotional connection rather than mental clarity
uninterpretable
vsunrelatable
1 8.2

Not possible to understand or explain

focuses on being emotionally distant rather than lacking clear meaning
uncomprehensible
vsunrelatable
  • Informal
1 9.9

Very hard to understand

focuses on being hard to connect with emotionally rather than purely intellectual difficulty
ungettable
vsunrelatable
9.6

Hard or impossible to understand

focuses on emotional or personal inaccessibility rather than intellectual or physical lack

Antonyms

157 1.6

Clear and easy to see what it means or why someone feels that way

22 3.7

Easy for many people to understand and feel connected to

How Relatable

familiar
16 3.4
relatable
22 3.7
understandable
157 1.6
unrelatable
1 7.4
distant
86 4.9

Surface Forms

unrelatable positive

Morphology

unrelatable = relatable (transparent) = un + relate + able

Formed by adding the productive negative prefix 'un-' to the adjective 'relatable', yielding the straightforward negated meaning.

Etymology

Unrelatable comes from three parts: un- meaning 'not', relate meaning 'to connect', just like in relation, and -able meaning 'can'. So, unrelatable means 'not able to be connected with', which is why we call a character, story, or experience 'unrelatable' when we cannot understand or feel close to it.