irreplaceable

English

Etymology

From ir- +‎ replaceable.

Pronunciation

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Adjective

irreplaceable (not comparable)

1. Incapable of being replaced, especially because of uniqueness or finiteness.

   irreplaceable batteries

   irreplaceable family portrait

   irreplaceable team member

   • 1960, Economist Intelligence Unit (Great Britain), The Commonwealth and Europe (page 182)

     For some purposes lead is unique and, apparently, irreplaceable. Battery plates may be an example of this.

   • 2021 February 20, Hannah Selinger, “Who Is Still Buying VHS Tapes?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 28 March 2022:

     But whether or not the VCR makes a complete comeback, VHS enthusiasts agree that these tapes occupy an irreplaceable place in culture.

Antonyms

• replaceable

Derived terms

• irreplaceability
• irreplaceably
• irreplaceableness

Translations

that cannot be replaced

• Belarusian: незаме́нны (njezamjénny)
• Bulgarian: незаменим (bg) (nezamenim)
• Catalan: irreemplaçable (ca), insubstituïble
• Czech: nenahraditelný (cs) m
• Dutch: onvervangbaar (nl)
• Esperanto: neanstataŭigebla
• Finnish: korvaamaton (fi)
• French: irremplaçable (fr)
• Galician: insubstituíble (gl), insubstituíbel (gl)
• German: unersetzbar (de), unersetzlich
• Hungarian: pótolhatatlan (hu)
• Italian: insostituibile (it)
• Latvian: neaizstājams
• Macedonian: незаменлив (nezamenliv)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uerstattelig

  Nynorsk: uerstatteleg

• Occitan: irreemplaçable, irremplaçable
• Polish: niezastąpiony m
• Portuguese: insubstituível
• Russian: незамени́мый (ru) (nezamenímyj)
• Spanish: irreemplazable (es), insustituible
• Ukrainian: незамі́нний (nezamínnyj)