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
-
(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.
A story begins to form—of her family life and her unhappiness—but these details raise new, unanswerable questions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 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
Duvall shades Sonny’s run from the law into a nuanced portrayal of wounded pride and unanswerable questions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026
To bring the most unserious of serious topics to life, BBC Sport recently asked about 250 of its staff across the UK to take on the unanswerable question.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2025
Fury and anguish filled him, unbearable, unanswerable; his mind was stretched to breaking.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
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