unutterable
Americanadjective
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not communicable by utterance; unspeakable; beyond expression.
unutterable joy.
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not utterable; not pronounceable.
an unutterable foreign word.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unutterable
1580–90; un- 1 + utterable ( def. )
Explanation
Anything that's just too horrible to say out loud is unutterable. Waking in unutterable fear from a nightmare makes it hard to fall back to sleep again. Intense feelings tend to be unutterable, whether it's your profound sorrow at the death of your cat or your unspeakable urge to strangle your sister from time to time. This adjective is ideal for describing things that can't be uttered, or expressed in words, from a root meaning "out." During the Victorian era, it was thought by many to be vulgar to talk about pants or trousers, and some people used euphemisms instead — including calling them unutterables.
Vocabulary lists containing unutterable
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.
Unutterable loneliness takes possession of him and he feels himself to be an exile in a dark and hostile assemblage of elemental forces.
From The Complex Vision by Powys, John Cowper
For one moment she beholds Him, the Unutterable One; and in His Sacred Face she reads, amid ineffable love and infinite majesty, a look of gratitude.
From The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII: No. 356, October 23, 1886. by Various
Unutterable grief dwelt upon her sweet young face, which also was pale and wan from the sickness through which she had passed.
From Cord and Creese by De Mille, James
Before me wide the marshes lay— Started the hounds with sudden bay— Aghast the swerving charger slanting Snorted—then stood abrupt and panting— For curling there, in coilèd fold, The Unutterable Beast behold!
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 328, February, 1843 by Various
And I lift wet eyes to her Unutterable with weeping, And beg for the loves that were, Now passed into Heaven's keeping....
From Days and Dreams Poems by Cawein, Madison J.
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.
