unattainable
Britishadjective
Explanation
Something unattainable is out of reach — you can't attain it or achieve it. Unfortunately, a lot of things in life are unattainable. For most of us, making a billion dollars is unattainable. Marrying a famous movie star is probably also unattainable. Flying to the moon in a private space yacht is totally unattainable. If something is unattainable, then you just can't get it. In life, it's not always easy to see what's unattainable and what's attainable, which can cause a lot of frustration.
Vocabulary lists containing unattainable
Power Prefix: un-
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "U"
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: un-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Unattainable standards of physical attractiveness didn’t establish themselves overnight.
From Slate • Mar. 30, 2018
He must be lured by the Unattainable, and this is ever just beyond him in his passion for creative art.
From The Raven by Poe, Edgar Allan
First, Meregrett, the eldest, now regnant in France; then Alianora, the second and most beautiful of these daughters, whom troubadours hymned as the Unattainable Princess.
From Chivalry by Cabell, James Branch
In the center of one panel, called "The Unattainable in Art," one sees Art represented.
From Palaces and Courts of the Exposition by James, Juliet Helena Lumbard
Paris, where, as he says, "talent is mediocrity; art, a frenzied endeavour to express the Inexpressible; human endeavour, a spasmodic straining to clutch the Unattainable."
From Lafcadio Hearn by Kennard, Nina H.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
