imponderable
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- imponderability noun
- imponderableness noun
- imponderably adverb
Etymology
Origin of imponderable
From the Medieval Latin word imponderābilis, dating back to 1785–95. See im- 2, ponderable
Explanation
Imponderable describes a situation that isn't able to be completely explained. "What is the meaning of life?" is one of those imponderable questions that defies humans' ability for understanding If something is ponderable, it is capable of being assessed or weighed; stick im- in front and you get the opposite effect. Use imponderable to describe something that is elusive and vague, perhaps even evasive. When your question doesn't have a definitive answer, you are in imponderable territory: "Life has many imponderable questions, such as why you park in a driveway and drive on parkway."
Vocabulary lists containing imponderable
Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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The Road
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Harry Truman's Inauguration Address
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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.
It is an imponderable question, but the beginnings of the answer to the first part look like they are already being seen.
From BBC • Sep. 7, 2024
And then, the corollary: If we know so much less and think so much less, what of the imponderable essential of human society — of wisdom?
From Washington Post • Apr. 28, 2023
We end up debating the appropriate words perhaps because debating the imponderable questions about what is a “rational” measure of concern for the underlying subjects is too much.
From Slate • Dec. 10, 2020
Help is such an amorphous concept, especially in a game awash in so many imponderable variables that its practitioners have sworn to the efficacy of soft metal bracelets and magnetic necklaces.
From Golf Digest • Feb. 2, 2020
Another believer said the spirits were “a magnetic, electric force, going out from the person, and imponderable; this force comes in contact with … the mind.”
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
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.
