incommunicable

American  

[in-kuh-myoo-ni-kuh-buhl] / ˌɪn kəˈmyu nɪ kə bəl /

adjective

1. incapable of being communicated, imparted, shared, etc.

2. not communicative; taciturn.

---

incommunicable British  

/ ˌɪnkəˈmjuːnɪkəbəl /

adjective

1. incapable of being communicated

2. an obsolete word for incommunicative

---

Other Word Forms

• incommunicability noun
• incommunicableness noun
• incommunicably adverb

Etymology

Origin of incommunicable

From the Late Latin word incommūnicābilis, dating back to 1560–70. See in- ³, communicable

Example Sentences

Mr. Dyer remained a dutiful son but, sensing that part of his life was now incommunicable to his parents, withheld his most important feelings from them.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025

Auden and William Carlos Williams, because it depicts, with brutal humor, a simple fact that most of us are loath to acknowledge: Suffering is incommunicable.

From Washington Post • Apr. 8, 2020

I mean it was the first real book, and also the first book I ever read, in the sense that I had a private vision of what I was reading about—unexpected, incommunicable, painfully exciting.

From The New Yorker • Feb. 25, 2015

Flanagan said that he and his five siblings grew up “children of the Death Railway. We carried in consequence many incommunicable things.”

From Washington Times • Oct. 15, 2014

That I was not dueling with Argaven, but trying to communicate with him, was itself an incommunicable fact.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin