unrecognizable

English

Alternative forms

• unrecognisable (non-Oxford British English)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Germanic *un-

Proto-West Germanic *un-

Old English un-

Middle English un-

English un-

Proto-Italic *wre-

Latin re-der.

Old French re-bor.

Middle English re-

English re-

English cognize

English recognize

Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis

Proto-Italic *-ðlis

Latin -bilis

Latin -ābilis

Old French -ablebor.

Middle English -able

English -able

English unrecognizable

From un- + recognize + -able.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈɹɛkə(ɡ)naɪzəbəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈɹɛkəɡnaɪzəbəl/, (nonstandard) /ʌnˈɹɛkənaɪzəbəl/
• IPA^(key): (obsolete) /ʌnɹɪˈkɒɡnɪzəbəl/

Adjective

unrecognizable (comparative more unrecognizable, superlative most unrecognizable) (American spelling, Oxford British English)

1. That cannot be recognized, especially because of substantial changes.

   Synonym: irrecognizable

   Antonym: recognizable

   • 2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[2]:

     He’s forced to travel back to 1969 to prevent an evil alien (a shockingly effective, nearly unrecognizable Jemaine Clement of Flight Of The Conchords, playing sort of a psychotic extraterrestrial-biker serial killer) from destroying the world by killing Brolin. Smith is aided in his quest by an elfin, time-jumping alien with psychic powers played by another Coen brothers veteran, A Serious Man star Michael Stuhlbarg.

Derived terms

• unrecognizability
• unrecognizableness

Translations

that cannot be recognized

• Bulgarian: неузнаваем (bg) (neuznavaem)
• Catalan: irreconeixible (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 无法辨认的, 未被认可的, 未被承认的

• Danish: uigenkendelig, ugenkendelig, ukendelig
• Dutch: onherkenbaar (nl)
• Esperanto: nerekonebla
• Faroese: ókenniligur
• Finnish: tunnistamaton (fi)
• French: méconnaissable (fr)
• Galician: irrecoñecible (gl) m or f, irrecoñecíbel (gl) m or f
• German: unerkennbar (de), unkenntlich, nicht wiederzuerkennen
• Greek: αγνώριστος (el) (agnóristos)
• Hungarian: felismerhetetlen (hu)
• Icelandic: ókennilegur (is)
• Italian: irriconoscibile (it)
• Polish: nierozpoznawalny (pl)
• Portuguese: irreconhecível (pt)
• Russian: неузнава́емый (ru) (neuznavájemyj)
• Slovak: nerozpoznateľný
• Spanish: irreconocible (es)
• Swedish: oigenkännlig (sv)
• Ukrainian: невпізна́нний (nevpiznánnyj), невпізна́ваний (nevpiznávanyj)