unutterable
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /(ˌ)ʌnˈʌt(ə)ɹəbl̩/
ipa: /(ˌ)ʌnˈʌtɹəbl̩/
ipa: /ˌʌnˈʌtɚəb(ə)l/
ipa: [ˌʌnˈʌɾɚ.ɪ̈bl̩]
Forms: form: more unutterable
form: most unutterable
Etymology: From un- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + utterable.
Senses: antonyms: articulable
enunciable
expressible
pronounceable
sayable
utterable
glosses: Not utterable; incapable of being physically spoken or voiced; unpronounceable.
examples: text: unutterable anguish
text: [H]e is Sir / The moſt vnutterable covvard, that ere nature / Bleſt vvith hard ſhoulders, vvhich vvere only giuen him, / To the ruine of baſtinados.
ref: c. 1607–1621 (date written), [Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher; Philip Massinger], The Tragedy of Thierry King of France, and His Brother Theodoret. […], London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1621, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, signature E, recto:
text: Prevenient Grace deſcending had remov'd / The ſtonie from thir hearts, and made new fleſh / Regenerat grow inſtead, that ſighs now breath'd / Unutterable, which the Spirit of prayer / Inſpir'd, and wing'd for Heav'n with ſpeedier flight / Then loudeſt Oratorie: […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 3–8:
text: VVhat is to ſpeak? or vvherefore ſhould I ſpeak? / VVhat means theſe Tears, but Grief unutterable?
ref: 1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act IV, page 47:
text: Still in harmonious intercourſe they liv'd / The rural day, and talk'd the flovving heart, / Or ſigh'd and look'd unutterable things.
ref: a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 91, lines 1186–1188:
text: [H]e was careſſed by all the people in the neighbourhood; who, while they admired his accompliſhments, could not help pitying his infatuated mother, for being deprived of that unutterable delight which any other parent would have enjoyed in the contemplation of ſuch an amiable ſon.
ref: 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “Peregrine is Summoned to Attend His Uncle; is More and More Hated by His Own Mother; Appeals to His Father, whose Condecension is Defeated by the Dominion of His Wife”, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 59, column 1:
text: [M]y heart dilated with unutterable happineſs, when, to my amazement, the houſe was burſting out in a blaze of fire, and every apperture was red with conflagration!
ref: 1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], “Offences are Easily Pardoned where There is Love at Bottom”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume II, Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC, pages 57–58:
text: [I]n this manner, Anne walking by her side, and Charles attending to his wife, they set forward, treading back with feelings unutterable, the ground, which so lately, so very lately, and so light of heart, they had passed along.
ref: 1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter XII, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume III, London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC, page 264:
text: Young Juan wander'd by the glassy brooks / Thinking unutterable things; […]
ref: 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, stanza XC, page 48:
text: How often have I seen him, intent upon a match at marbles or pegtop, looking on with a face of unutterable interest, and hardly breathing at the critical times!
ref: 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “Somebody Turns Up”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 179:
text: An unutterable nausea oppressed me; I was conscious of gasping; there seemed no breath in my body.
ref: 1850, Herman Melville, “The Last of the Jacket”, in White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers; London: Richard Bentley, published 1855, →OCLC, page 456:
text: As she turned her face upon Madame de Sonnaz with unutterable scorn and indignation on it, the elder woman did that homage to her beauty which a rival renders so reluctantly, but which is truer testimony to its power than all a lover's praise.
ref: 1880, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], chapter XVII, in Moths […], volume II, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 242:
text: Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.
ref: 1964 December 11, Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Lecture by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, Oslo, Norway, December 11, 1964, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, published 1965, →OCLC, page 1:
text: Abacus, n. In architecture, the upper part of a column, upon which, in all good architecture, sits the thoughtful stork pondering unutterable things.
ref: 1967, Ambrose Bierce, “Abacus”, in Ernest Jerome Hopkins, editor, The Enlarged Devil’s Dictionary […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, →OCLC, page 1:
synonyms: word: ineffable
word: inutterable
word: unspeakable
word: utterless
word: indescribable
word: indefinable
word: undescribable
word: indicible
word: inexpressible
word: untold
word: ineffable
word: inenarrable
word: inutterable
word: nameless
word: termless
word: undefinable
word: unnameable
word: unspecifiable
word: unspeakable
word: unutterable
antonyms: word: articulable
word: expressible
word: utterable
word: indescribable
glosses: Incapable of being articulated or expressed; indescribable, inexpressible.
examples: text: Hovv oft the humble Scholar came, / And to your Songs he rais'd his Ears / To learn the Unutterable Name, / To view the Eternal Baſe that bears / The Nevv Creations Frame.
ref: 1706, I[saac] Watts, “To the Memory of the Reverend Mr. Tho[mas] Gouge, who Died January 8. 1⁶⁹⁹⁄₇₀₀”, in Horæ Lyricæ. Poems, Chiefly of the Lyric Kind. […], London: […] S. and D. Bridge, for John Lawrence […], →OCLC, book II (Odes, Elegies and Epistles, &c. Sacred to Vertue, Loyalty and Friendship), stanza VI, page 253:
synonyms: word: unsayable
antonyms: speakable
utterable
glosses: Not allowed to be spoken; taboo, unspeakable.
examples: text: These unutterable people upon the telephone have already ruined my morning's work, so that a little more can hardly matter.
ref: 1929 January, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Disintegration Machine”, in The Professor Challenger Stories […], London: John Murray, […], published [1952], →OCLC, page 531:
synonyms: word: abysmal
word: awful
word: chronic
word: coarse
word: crap
word: crummy
word: dire
word: disagreeable
word: dismal
word: dreadful
word: foul
word: hideous
word: hopeless
word: horrendous
word: horrid
word: horrible
word: inadequate
word: incompetent
word: inelegant
word: intolerable
word: inferior
word: loathsome
word: lousy
word: miserable
word: naff
word: negative
word: odious
word: pathetic
word: peak
word: rotten
word: rubbish
word: shitawful
word: sloppy
word: terrible
word: unfavorable
antonyms: word: awful
word: bad
word: detestable
word: disagreeable
word: dreadful
word: unsatisfactory
glosses: Extremely bad or objectionable; unspeakable.
Derived terms: unutterableness
unutterably
Related terms: inutterable
inutterably
unuttered
utterless