inescapable
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- inescapableness noun
- inescapably adverb
Etymology
Origin of inescapable
First recorded in 1785–95; in- 3 + escapable ( def. )
Explanation
Something that's inescapable is impossible to get away from. A reluctant swimmer may stop trying to talk his mom out of making him go to swimming lessons once he realizes that learning to swim is inescapable. Any force or occurrence or duty that you just can't avoid is inescapable. Feeling angry at people you love sometimes is inescapable, and children growing older is also inescapable. The adjective combines the prefix in, or "not, the opposite of," with escapable, which comes from the Vulgar Latin word excappare, literally "get out of one's cape," or "leave a pursuer holding just one's cape."
Vocabulary lists containing inescapable
The Honest Truth
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Winger
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"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens
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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.
Coffee is inescapable in Hanoi where it is consumed around the clock.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026
This constant bickering only leads to an inescapable level of discourse that serves the false perception of Fennell as the raging provocateur she is not.
From Salon • Feb. 23, 2026
Dean’s hit “Man I Need” was also inescapable on TikTok.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 18, 2026
Golden, the inescapable hit from the movie K-Pop Demon Hunters, has become the first ever K-Pop song to win a Grammy Award.
From BBC • Feb. 1, 2026
These were the circumstances of her life, the inescapable truths of it.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
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.
