Ineffable

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ɪˈnÉ›f.É™.bÉ™l/
• US IPA: /ˌɪnˈɛf.É™.bÉ™l/

Origin

First attested in 1450. From Middle French ineffable, from Latin ineffābilis, from in- ("not") + effor ("utter").

Full definition of ineffable

Adjective

1. Beyond expression in words; unspeakable.
• 1919, William Somerset Maugham, ,Stroeve was trying to express a feeling which he had never known before, and he did not know how to put it into common terms. He was like the mystic seeking to describe the ineffable.
• Gay Watson, Stephen Batchelor, Guy Claxton, The Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, science, and our day-to-day lives (2000) p. 100:As Alan Watts (1961) wrote, it involves trying to speak the unspeakable, scrute the inscrutable and eff the ineffable.
2. Forbidden to be uttered; taboo.

Antonyms

• (beyond expression in words) noisy

Synonyms

• (beyond expression in words) indescribable, inexpressible, unspeakable
• (forbidden to be uttered) taboo, unspeakable, unutterable

Related terms

• ineffability
• ineffableness
• ineffably
• counterparts in calculating:
• innumerable
• innumerous
• unnumerable
• incalculable