inexorable
/ɪnˈɛksɚəb(ə)l/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.57 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
5
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Impossible to prevent or stop; inevitable.
adj
Unable to be persuaded; relentless; unrelenting.
Example Sentences
- "[…] but inexorable yron detaines him in the dungeon of the night, fo that (pure creature) hee can neither traffique with the mercers and tailers as he was wont, nor dominere in tavernes as hee ought."
- "What greater follie can there be, than for a man to torment himselfe for nothing, and that willingly and of purpose, to pray and importune him, whom he knowes to be inexorable; to knocke at that dore that cannot be opened?"
- "[W]e ſhould no longer behold the ſad ſpectacle of ſo many miſerable captives of our ſpecies ſtretching forth their hands, and bending at the cloſe of their exiſtence, under the tyranny of imperious and inexorable habits, which gird them and carry them whither they would not."
- "What was my knowledge? it only served to show its own vanity; what was my power, when its exercise only served to work out the decrees of an inexorable necessity? I had parted myself from my kind, but I had not acquired the nature of a spirit. I had lost of humanity but its illusions, and they alone are what render it supportable."
- "All this, laws, prejudices, acts, men, things, went and came above him, according to the complicated and mysterious movement that God impresses upon civilization, marching over him and crushing him with an indescribably tranquil cruelty and inexorable indifference."
- "It is more than the story of the fence and those who maintain it. It is a journey not just into the inland and along the length of the fence; it is a journey into the Australian psyche, reminding us of the inexorable struggle against the implacable wilderness, of the thin line that separates the tamed from the untamed, and the unnamed menace that broods just beyond the last suburbs."
Etymology
From Middle French inexorable, from Latin inexōrābilis (“relentless, inexorable”) (or directly from the Latin word), from in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + exōrābilis (“that may be moved or persuaded by entreaty; exorable”). Exōrābilis is derived from exōrāre (from exōrō (“to persuade, win over; to beg, entreat, plead”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘out of’) + ōrō (“to beg, entreat, plead, pray; to deliver a speech, orate”), from ōs (“mouth”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃éh₁os (“mouth”)) + -bilis (suffix forming adjectives indicating a capacity or worth of being acted upon). By surface analysis, in- + exorable.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: inexorable, inexōrābilis, *h₃éh₁os
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɪnˈɛksɚəb(ə)l/
- British English: /ɪnˈɛksɔɹəbəl/
Inflected Forms
more inexorable (comparative)
most inexorable (superlative)