unbearable
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- unbearableness noun
- unbearably adverb
Etymology
Origin of unbearable
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; un- 1, bearable
Explanation
When something's unbearable, you just can't take it. Your neighbor's loud music was always annoying, but when the walls shook until your favorite vase fell and broke you knew it had become unbearable. If you look at the adjective unbearable and strip away the prefix un- and the suffix -able, you have the word bear, meaning "to endure." Now put back those add-ons and you end up with a word that means "not able to endure." In other words, you can't stand it. You thought that your job as a police officer was tough until you volunteered to umpire a little league ballgame — the pressure was unbearable!
Vocabulary lists containing unbearable
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 12–15
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The Cay
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower
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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.
Jade Boden-de Mel first experienced "unbearable" pain at 17 but says medics could not identify the cause and prescribed the contraceptive pill to manage it.
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026
Not an iota of care for Mathew Shurka, “an amicus who received conversion therapy as a child,” who is a living example of the unbearable price paid for framing talk therapy as nothing but speech.
From Slate • Apr. 3, 2026
If both sides decide the costs of the war are becoming unbearable, they could cut an agreement that stops the fighting while deferring decisions on the toughest issues.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026
"This is becoming unbearable," Ofelia Oliva, a 64-year-old Havana resident, told AFP.
From Barron's • Mar. 21, 2026
And once again I see his point that life in Haiti can be so dreadful that if you live and suffer here, you have to look for multiple explanations for the unbearable.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
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.
