irreconcilable
/ˌɪɹˈɛkənsˌaɪləbəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.68 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
14
Letters
6
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Unable to be reconciled; opposed; uncompromising.
adj
noun
Something that cannot be reconciled.
noun
A Confederate who moved to another country following the American Civil War, rather than live in a reunited United States.
American usage; Dated; Slang
Example Sentences
- "[T]he fact that the peccant doctor [Sir James Clark, 1st Baronet] continued in the Queen's service made the Hastings family irreconcilable and produced an unpleasant impression of unrepentant error upon the public mind."
- "I amused myself by thinking that in his choice of books he showed pleasantly the irreconcilable sides of his fantastic nature."
- "According to Marx and Engels, Lenin points out, the state is the result of irreconcilable class antagonisms, but not in the sense that it harmonizes them or arbitrates between them; on the contrary, the state as such has hitherto always been the instrument whereby the possessing classes have coerced the oppressed classes."
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French irréconciliable, from Late Latin irreconciliābilis, from in- (“not”) + reconciliō (“to reconcile”) + -ābilis (“-able”). By surface analysis, ir- + reconcilable.
Word Breakdown
- Root: irreconciliābilis