unendurable
Britishadjective
Explanation
When you can't tolerate something, it's unendurable. The vintage camper your parents bought might smell so terrible that it's unendurable. Use the adjective unendurable to describe situations that are truly impossible to bear, like the unendurable pain of losing a beloved friend. You can also use the word to emphasize the negative qualities of something: "This math class is unendurable — I'm transferring to modern dance." When you can endure something, you can stand it, even if it's hard. Endure comes from the Latin indurare, "make hard" or "harden the heart against."
Vocabulary lists containing unendurable
The Giver
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"Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell
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"I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen
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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.
After her parents’ divorce, when she was 9, her childhood was marked by nearly unendurable feelings of isolation and low self-esteem.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
Paola Marra, who had terminal bowel cancer, died on Wednesday at the Swiss clinic - where people with illnesses leading to death, or unendurable pain or disability, can end their life.
From BBC • Mar. 21, 2024
Though he generally uses he/him pronouns and has reconciled himself to masculinity in most respects, the thought of being a father seems unendurable.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 6, 2021
A: That tension between “I’d have to give up things I enjoy if I ended our friendship” and “our friendship is now mostly unendurable because I don’t want to be around her” is challenging, certainly.
From Slate • Dec. 28, 2020
The blue-white scar was constant, the noise unendurable.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
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.
