unalterable
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unalterable
Explanation
You take your dress to the tailor to be altered. He tells you he can't alter it. The dress is unalterable. Something unalterable cannot be changed. Take the prefix un-, meaning "not". Add it to the word alter, meaning "change." Tack on the suffix -able, meaning "possible." The result? Unalterable, "impossible to change." The things you've done in the past are unalterable. The only things you have the power to change are the things you're doing right now or that you will do in the future. How can you alter things that haven't happened yet? Good question. For all we know, they're unalterable too.
Vocabulary lists containing unalterable
Animal Farm
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"Common Sense," Vocabulary from the pamphlet
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "U"
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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.
This should be a lesson to us in a time that treats the shifting categories of identity as though they are existential and unalterable.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Blanca Alfaro, the head of the Guatemalan electoral commission, responded by calling the result "unalterable" and insisted Mr Arévalo would be sworn in next month as planned.
From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2023
Cryptocurrency is a type of digital money secured via encryption in a publicly viewable and purportedly unalterable way.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2022
None of this is inevitable or unalterable in the face of campaigns or catastrophe.
From New York Times ● Oct. 8, 2021
Scientific knowledge is not, in reality, unalterable truth, even if it appears to be.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
