incomprehensible
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See also: incompréhensible
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle French incomprehensible, from Latin incomprehensibilis. Equivalent to in- + comprehensible.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]incomprehensible (comparative more incomprehensible, superlative most incomprehensible)
- Impossible or very difficult to understand.
- 1904-09, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, published 1962
- But this inference, which is supported by the opening of Book I, renders incomprehensible the note "and I have finished writing this," which is included within the dream.
- 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 196:
- In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent.
- 1990, Greg Bear, Heads:
- He shook his head. 'It's not only undefined, it's incomprehensible. Even the QL is befuddled by it and can't give me straight answers.'
- 1904-09, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, published 1962
- (theology or literary) Which cannot be contained; boundless, infinite.
- 1969, “The Divine Liturgy of John Chrysostom: Liturgy of Offering”, in Joseph Raya, transl., edited by José de Vinck, Byzantine Daily Worship[1], Alleluia Press, page 282:
- Prayer to God the Father: It is fitting and right to sing to You, to bless You, to praise You, to give thanks to You, to worship You in every place of your dominion: for You are God, beyond description, beyond understanding, invisible, incomprehensible, always existing, always the same; You and your only-begotten Son and your Holy Spirit
Synonyms
[edit]Antonyms
[edit]- comprehensible, understandable; See also Thesaurus:comprehensible
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]impossible or very difficult to understand
Noun
[edit]incomprehensible (plural incomprehensibles)
- Anything that is beyond understanding.
Translations
[edit]anything that is beyond understanding
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Further reading
[edit]- “incomprehensible”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “incomprehensible”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Middle French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]First known attestation 1314, borrowed from Latin incomprehensibilis.[1]
Adjective
[edit]incomprehensible m or f (plural incomprehensibles)
Descendants
[edit]- → English: incomprehensible
References
[edit]- ^ Etymology and history of “incompréhensible”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms prefixed with in-
- English 6-syllable words
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- en:Theology
- English literary terms
- English nouns
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- Middle French terms borrowed from Latin
- Middle French terms derived from Latin
- Middle French lemmas
- Middle French adjectives