ungovernable

[uhn-guhv-er-nuh-buhl]

adjective

1. impossible to govern, rule, or restrain; uncontrollable.

ungovernable

/ ʌnˈɡʌvənəbəl /

adjective

1. not able to be disciplined, restrained, etc

   an ungovernable temper

Other Word Forms

• ungovernability noun
• ungovernableness noun
• ungovernably adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of ungovernable¹

1665–75; un- ¹ + governable ( def. )

Example Sentences

But the president will have known for some time of the political challenges ahead and he is not one to give up without a fight - or another bid to stabilise an increasingly ungovernable France.

From BBC

A government changes its behavior, he told me, when a country becomes ungovernable.

From Salon

"It's better to look at what's causing people to be ungovernable," says Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who specialises in polarised democracies.

From BBC

Meanwhile, the ocean itself plays its ungovernable part.

From Los Angeles Times

“They are making it seem as if without this kind of major intervention and excessive force, that these people are ungovernable.”

From Los Angeles Times