fathomless

American  

[fath-uhm-lis] / ˈfæð əm lɪs /

adjective

1. impossible to measure the depth of; bottomless.

2. impossible to understand; incomprehensible.

   fathomless motives.

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fathomless British  

/ ˈfæðəmlɪs /

adjective

1. another word for unfathomable

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Other Word Forms

• fathomlessly adverb
• fathomlessness noun

Etymology

Origin of fathomless

First recorded in 1600–10; fathom + -less

Example Sentences

Scene by scene, Ms. Alexander deftly conveys the mounting burden of Carol’s exhaustion and fathomless sadness in the face of this.

From The Wall Street Journal

Looking down into his father’s eyes, he saw the tiny scarlet veins, and at the centers, the fathomless dark.

From Literature

Otherwise I could be chased off this pitching deck and into the fathomless sea.

From Literature

To feel and smell the reality of 12.4 million square miles of frozen expanse, to place upon a scale the fathomless weight of that much ice pressed upon the earth, left me winded.

From Salon

I’ll pull out just one such gem, for it illustrates the timeliness of the author’s approach to the fathomless depths of his subject.

From Washington Post

Related Words

• baffling
• impenetrable
• inconceivable
• mystifying
• opaque
• puzzling
• unfathomable
• unimaginable
• unintelligible