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.
It’s the falsity that is just unendurable after decades.
From Slate • Apr. 17, 2026
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
Cassie’s refusal to forget is more threatening: a constant, unendurable rebuke to those around her.
From New York Times • Dec. 17, 2020
He was standing in front of a wall of darkness, and on the other side of it there was something unendurable, something too dreadful to be faced.
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.
