unfathomable

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]
WOTD – 24 July 2024

Etymology

[edit]

From un- (prefix meaning ‘not’) +‎ fathom (“to measure the depth of (water); (figurative) to deeply understand (someone or something)”) +‎ -able (suffix forming adjectives denoting things not able or fit to be done).[1]

Pronunciation

[edit]

Adjective

[edit]

unfathomable (comparative more unfathomable, superlative most unfathomable)

  1. Impossible to fathom.
    1. Especially of depth: physically incapable of being measured; immeasurable.
      Synonyms: (archaic) abyssal, incalculable, inestimable, soundless, unplumbable, unsoundable
      Antonyms: calculable, estimable, fathomable, measurable, plumbable, soundable
      • a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, “A Fifth Consideration Concerning the Decays especially of the Humane Nature, and whether there be any such Decays; and what may be Collected Concerning the Origination of Man upon that Supposition”, in The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC, section II, page 187:
        [W]e are not to make our eſtimate of the quantity of VVaters meerly by the Superficies of the Sea, but by its vaſt depth, vvhich in ſome places is unfathomable, and by thoſe vaſt ſubterraneous Receptacles of VVater vvhich pour themſelves out in ſeveral great Ebullitions and Marine Springs: […]
      • 1712 July 13 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “WEDNESDAY, July 2, 1712. Paper X. On the Pleasures of the Imagination.”, in The Spectator, number 420; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 79:
        But if we yet rise higher, and consider the fixed stars as so many vast oceans of flame, that are each of them attended with a different set of planets, and still discover new firmaments and new lights, that are sunk farther in those unfathomable depths of ether, so as not to be seen by the strongest of our telescopes, we are lost in such a labyrinth of suns and worlds, and confounded with the immensity and magnificence of nature.
        The spelling has been modernized.
      • 1815 September 10 – December 14, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude”, in Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude: And Other Poems, London: […] Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, […]; and Carpenter and Son, […] [b]y S[amuel] Hamilton, […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 26:
        Now, where the fiercest war among the waves / Is calm, on the unfathomable stream / The boat moved slowly.
      • 1851, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Casa Guidi Windows. A Poem, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, part I, stanza XIX, page 52:
        [Y]e may well look up surprised / To those unfathomable heavens that feed / Your purple hills!
      • [1879], [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “La Chicot”, in The Cloven Foot […], volume I, London: John and Robert Maxwell […], →OCLC, page 71:
        Not till her nineteenth year had she seen the long, dazzling boulevards stretching into unfathomable distance before her eyes; […]
    2. (figurative) Impossible to grasp the extent of, or to fully know or understand.
      Synonyms: bottomless, fathomless, impenetrable, unintelligible; see also Thesaurus:incomprehensible
      Antonyms: explicable, fathomable, intelligible, penetrable, understandable; see also Thesaurus:comprehensible
      The sheer number of warriors the enemy attacked with was unfathomable.

Derived terms

[edit]
[edit]

Translations

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ “unfathomable, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “unfathomable, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=unfathomable&oldid=80861648"