unanswerable

adjective

un·​an·​swer·​able
ˌən-ˈan(t)s-rə-bəl,
-ˈan(t)-sə- How to pronounce unanswerable (audio)
: not capable of being answered
also : irrefutable
unanswerability
ˌən-ˌan(t)s-rə-ˈbi-lə-tē
-ˌan(t)-sə- How to pronounce unanswerable (audio)
noun
unanswerably
ˌən-ˈan(t)s-rə-blē
-ˈan(t)-sə- How to pronounce unanswerable (audio)
adverb

Examples of unanswerable in a Sentence

the unanswerable assertion that she didn't know much about art but she knew what she liked
Recent Examples on the Web The reader is perpetually aware of big, perhaps unanswerable questions: What makes a culture flourish? Claudia Roth Pierpont, The New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2024 Even when families in Gaza secure shelter and there is no immediate threat of a missile strike or an Israeli military ground invasion, unanswerable questions linger. Ghada Abdulfattah, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Feb. 2024 The awful, unanswerable questions in the Quarles household are plaguing hundreds of families in the Washington, D.C., region this year as the homicide rate soars, despite decreases in big cities across the U.S. Violent crime ebbed last year after a pandemic-era peak in most American cities. USA TODAY, 22 Jan. 2024 But then the plates shift beneath the ocean floor—this can take years, a decade or more—and something murky and unanswerable rears up, just under the surface of your consciousness, unknown and yet profoundly certain, humming at a low and dizzying frequency. Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2023 That’s the real question and also the most unanswerable. John Cherwa, Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2023 Throughout this book — part memoir, part manifesto — Rosen asks uncomfortable but crucial questions, some of them unanswerable, all of them compelling, and the result is an incisive but intimate tour de force. Washington Post Editors and Reviewers, Washington Post, 26 May 2023 The film braids together the stories of three people, who face the unanswerable question of how their health has been impacted, and a sleep doctor who leads her patients through the chaotic recall. ProPublica, 29 Dec. 2023 The hockey gods had other ideas, writing a different story, the one that saw former Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy gain his redemption in Las Vegas, the one that left the Bruins with little more than a pile of unanswerable what-ifs. Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Aug. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unanswerable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1613, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of unanswerable was in 1613

Dictionary Entries Near unanswerable

Cite this Entry

“Unanswerable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unanswerable. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

unanswerable

adjective
un·​an·​swer·​able ˌən-ˈan(t)s-(ə-)rə-bəl How to pronounce unanswerable (audio)
ˈən-
: not answerable
especially : irrefutable
the arguments were unanswerable

More from Merriam-Webster on unanswerable

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