interminable

English

Etymology

From Middle English interminable, from Middle French interminable and its etymon Late Latin interminābilis. By surface analysis, in- +‎ terminable.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɜː(ɹ).mɪn.ə.bəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

interminable (comparative more interminable, superlative most interminable)

1. Existing or occurring without interruption or end; ceaseless, unending.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Crawley of Queen’s Crawley”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 61:

     After supper Sir Pitt Crawley began to smoke his pipe; and when it became quite dark, he lighted the rushlight in the tin candlestick, and producing from an interminable pocket a huge mass of papers, began reading them, and putting them in order.

   • 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 193:

     The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway.

   • 1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Through the Valley of the Shadow”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published March 1915, →OCLC, page 137:

     It was now a beautiful, moonlit night. The air was crisp and invigorating. Behind them lay the interminable vista of the desert, dotted here and there with an occasional oasis.

   • 1983 February 5, Joseph Van Ness, “Keeping It Alive”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 28, page 10:

     Life's interminable succession of stages.

Derived terms

• interminableness
• interminably

Translations

existing or occurring without interruption or end

• Bulgarian: безкраен (bg) (bezkraen)
• Catalan: interminable (ca)
• Esperanto: nefiniĝebla
• Finnish: loputon (fi), keskeytymätön (fi), loppumaton (fi)
• Japanese: 止められない (ja) (yamerarenai)
• Korean: 끝없는 (kkeudeomneun)
• Marathi: असमाप्य (asmāpya)
• Portuguese: interminável (pt)
• Romanian: interminabil (ro)
• Russian: бесконе́чный (ru) (beskonéčnyj), беспредельный (ru) (bespredelʹnyj)
• Spanish: interminable
• Ukrainian: нескінченний m (neskinčennyj); безмежний (uk) m (bezmežnyj)

Noun

interminable (plural interminables)

1. (mathematics, dated) A repeating decimal.

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin interminābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central) [in.tər.miˈnab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [in.teɾ.miˈna.ble]
• IPA^(key): (Northwestern) [in.ter.miˈnab.ble]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧mi‧na‧ble

Adjective

interminable m or f (masculine and feminine plural interminables)

1. interminable, unending

Derived terms

• interminablement

Further reading

• “interminable”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “interminable”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “interminable” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “interminable”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin interminābilis. By surface analysis, in- +‎ terminer +‎ -able.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.mi.nabl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Adjective

interminable (plural interminables)

1. unending, endless, ceaseless, never-ending

Further reading

• “interminable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /inteɾmiˈnable/ [ĩn̪.t̪eɾ.miˈna.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: in‧ter‧mi‧na‧ble

Adjective

interminable m or f (masculine and feminine plural interminables)

1. interminable

   Synonym: inacabable

2. unending

   Synonym: infinito

Derived terms

• interminablemente

Related terms

• terminar

Further reading

• “interminable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025