unanswerable
Americanadjective
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not capable of being answered; not having a known or discoverable answer.
an unanswerable question.
-
not open to dispute or rebuttal; irrefutable; conclusive.
an unanswerable proof.
adjective
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incapable of being refuted
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(of a question) not admitting of any answer
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unanswerable
First recorded in 1605–15; un- 1 + answerable
Explanation
If there is no possibly way to respond to a question, it's unanswerable. "What is the meaning of life?" is an unanswerable question. Some questions are answerable, like "Who was the first person to walk on the moon?" and "What is your name?" Others are too complex or unknowable to be answered, like the unanswerable question, "Who is the happiest person in the world?" Both answerable and unanswerable trace their roots to the Old English answarian, "make an answer in reply."
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.
You can kick that unanswerable question around while watching “Joffrey Ballet: The Next Movement,” which communicates the joy of bodies in motion in a way that might leave you feeling younger.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Instead, the team broke down their unanswerable question—will the breeding program work—into four smaller, more tractable assumptions:
From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2026
But the perpetually unanswerable question is whether they will be up to whatever comes next.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2025
For director Alex Ross Perry, it boiled down to the admittedly unanswerable question of whether the band in its time could have been bigger than it was.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2025
His mind shriveled as he thought of the unanswerable, mad arguments with which O’Brien would demolish him.
From "1984" by George Orwell
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.
