unthinkable
/ʌnˈθɪŋkəbəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.27 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Inconceivable or unimaginable; extremely improbable in a way that goes against common sense.
noun
Something, or various things collectively, that one dares not think about or do.
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonyms: unbelievable, incredible, inconceivable"
- "Near-synonyms: inconceivable, imponderable"
- "Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person, provided it comes out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life's further development"
- "With 16 minutes left on the clock and the tension climbing through the roof, Trinh-Duc tried his luck with a penalty from just inside halfway only to push it wide, but the unthinkable now seemed a real possibility."
- "The ruling also comes amid calls from an opposition party for a review of the royal insult law, which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago."
- "It reopened as St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London in the early part of this century, and it now seens unthinkable to demolish such a structure."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- Proto-Indo-European *teng-der. Proto-Germanic *þankijaną Proto-West Germanic *þankijan Old English þenċan Middle English thinken English think Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English unthinkable From un- + think + -able.
Inflected Forms
more unthinkable (comparative)
most unthinkable (superlative)
uncountable (countable)
unthinkables (plural)