unsayable

adjective

un·​say·​able ˌən-ˈsā-ə-bəl How to pronounce unsayable (audio)
: not sayable : not easily expressed or related
also : not allowed to be said

Examples of unsayable in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The tennis-ball POV from Challengers, Isabelle Huppert’s cat with the unknowable and unsayable name, the children dressed as Serge Gainsbourg on French TV. Bethy Squires, Vulture, 1 Nov. 2024 And the true heroes, consequently, are those who dare to say the unsayable. Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 5 Sep. 2024 This was a composer tasked with saying the unsayable against the unspeakable. Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2024 American literature took a while to say the unsayable. S. C. Cornell, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2023 With remarkable speed, however, the unsayable has become close to conventional wisdom. Michael Barnett, Foreign Affairs, 14 Apr. 2023 One senses that there’s an unsayable aspect to it. Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 12 Oct. 2020 And thus stand up for the subconscious, for the unsaid and unsayable, for the historically and personally indigestible, for the unprettified, for the autonomy of an imagination that cannot escape history, and—more than anything else—for black freedom of expression itself. Zadie Smith, The New York Review of Books, 27 Feb. 2020 The emotional focus and intensity of her distinctive music is constantly overturned by her infectious quicksilver laugh and easy lightness of touch, coupled with her uncanny ability to hear and express the unsayable. Hilton Dresden, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Dec. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1870, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of unsayable was in 1870

Dictionary Entries Near unsayable

Cite this Entry

“Unsayable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unsayable. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on unsayable

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!