unknowable
adjective
not knowable; incapable of being known or understood.
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unknowable
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Unknowable
Unknowablenounphilosophy the ultimate reality that underlies all phenomena but cannot be known
unknowable
American
[uhn-noh-uh-buhl]
/ ʌnˈnoʊ ə bəl /
adjective
noun
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something that is unknowable.
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the Unknowable, the postulated reality lying behind all phenomena but not cognizable by any of the processes by which the mind cognizes phenomenal objects.
unknowable
1
British
/ ʌnˈnəʊəbəl /
adjective
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incapable of being known or understood
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beyond human understanding
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( as noun )
the unknowable
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Unknowable
2
British
/ ʌnˈnəʊəbəl /
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unknowable
Middle English word dating back to 1325–75; see origin at un- 1, knowable
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.
He isn’t unknowable at all—and it’s crucial to understand what led up to his greater project on the Supreme Court.
From Slate • May 13, 2026
But, as Tate Britain’s concurrent “Turner and Constable” exhibition shows, Romantic nature was passionate and unstable, and all the more precious for being unknowable.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 14, 2026
At its best, it’s poetry trying to make sense of the unknowable.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2026
The river, at times hauntingly beautiful and others murky and unknowable, offers a mirror to Daniel's torment, and to the increasingly fragile hope of his wife, Agnieszka, that Chris will one day come home.
From Barron's • Jan. 24, 2026
He understood in that moment that he was smaller than he had ever known, and the realm of the unknowable was bigger.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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.
