incomprehensible
Americanadjective
-
impossible to understand or comprehend; unintelligible.
- Synonyms:
- obscure, bewildering, baffling
-
Archaic. limitless; not limited or capable of being limited.
adjective
-
incapable of being understood; unintelligible
-
archaic limitless; boundless
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of incomprehensible
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English word from Latin word incomprehēnsibilis. See in- 3, comprehensible
Explanation
If your poetry is incomprehensible, it's difficult to understand, and it might be impossible to explain. Could be you're a genius! Could be you're just not very good at poetry. Incomprehensible originates from the Latin incomprehensibilis: in- ("not") and comprehensibilis ("perceptible, evident, intelligible"). Many unfamiliar customs or rituals seem incomprehensible from a distance, for example, the early Chinese practice of foot binding, in which girls tightly bandaged their feet to prevent them from getting bigger. Similarly, future generations may find today's Western high-heeled shoes incomprehensible, leading them to ask, "What in the world were they thinking?!"
Vocabulary lists containing incomprehensible
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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.
Uefa said the decision had "crossed a red line", labelling it "unprecedented, incomprehensible, and unjustifiable", while the Norwegian Football Federation is considering filing a formal complaint to Fifa's ethics committee.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
European football's governing body Uefa criticised Fifa's decision at the time, calling it "unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable", and the decision was a factor in the organisation's president Aleksander Ceferin not attending the World Cup final.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
He would envision the next morning’s newspaper headline as he spoke to Congress, ready to turn incomprehensible if he didn’t like what he imagined reading the next day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
Ingrid Robeyns, a philosopher and economist, has written that the wealth of the world’s richest has soared so much it is nearly incomprehensible for laypeople to grasp.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
He spent the whole night making incomprehensible movements in the drawing room; later they turned out to be exercises designed to perfect the mind’s control over the body and to improve digestion.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
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.
