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INCOMPREHENSIBLE
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Difficult to understand
Example:
the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible
Synonyms:
incomprehensible; uncomprehensible
Classified under:
Similar:
dark; obscure (marked by difficulty of style or expression)
enigmatic; enigmatical; puzzling (not clear to the understanding)
unfathomable (incapable of being fully understood)
impenetrable (impossible to understand)
indecipherable (impossible to determine the meaning of)
lost; missed (not caught with the senses or the mind)
opaque; unintelligible (hard or impossible to understand)
Also:
unclear (not clear to the mind)
incomprehensible; inexplicable (incapable of being explained or accounted for)
unintelligible (poorly articulated or enunciated, or drowned by noise)
Antonym:
comprehensible (capable of being comprehended or understood)
Derivation:
incomprehensibility (the quality of being incomprehensible)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Incapable of being explained or accounted for
Example:
left the house at three in the morning for inexplicable reasons
Synonyms:
incomprehensible; inexplicable
Classified under:
Similar:
cryptic; cryptical; deep; inscrutable; mysterious; mystifying (of an obscure nature)
paradoxical; self-contradictory (seemingly contradictory but nonetheless possibly true)
unaccountable; unexplainable (not to be accounted for or explained)
unexplained (having the reason or cause not made clear)
Also:
incomprehensible; uncomprehensible (difficult to understand)
insoluble (admitting of no solution or explanation)
Derivation:
incomprehensibility (the quality of being incomprehensible)
Context examples:
He wanted it because it was his nature, because he had been gripped tight by that nameless, incomprehensible pride of the trail and trace—that pride which holds dogs in the toil to the last gasp, which lures them to die joyfully in the harness, and breaks their hearts if they are cut out of the harness.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Such a burden to be left on my hands—and so much annoyance as she caused me, daily and hourly, with her incomprehensible disposition, and her sudden starts of temper, and her continual, unnatural watchings of one's movements!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
While the contents of the first letter remained in her mind, she was all surprise—all astonishment that Wickham should marry a girl whom it was impossible he could marry for money; and how Lydia could ever have attached him had appeared incomprehensible.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Phrases, lines, and stanzas were cut out, interchanged, or juggled about in the most incomprehensible manner.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
It was as incomprehensible as it was mortifying and grievous.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
To the former her raillery was probably, as far as it regarded only himself, perfectly indifferent; but to the latter it was at first incomprehensible; and when its object was understood, she hardly knew whether most to laugh at its absurdity, or censure its impertinence, for she considered it as an unfeeling reflection on the colonel's advanced years, and on his forlorn condition as an old bachelor.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
He was inexcusable, incomprehensible!
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
He took it up with a snatch; he looked at the edge; then shot a glance at me, inexpressibly peculiar, and quite incomprehensible: a glance that seemed to take and make note of every point in my shape, face, and dress; for it traversed all, quick, keen as lightning.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Every lingering struggle in his favour grew fainter and fainter; and in farther justification of Mr. Darcy, she could not but allow that Mr. Bingley, when questioned by Jane, had long ago asserted his blamelessness in the affair; that proud and repulsive as were his manners, she had never, in the whole course of their acquaintance—an acquaintance which had latterly brought them much together, and given her a sort of intimacy with his ways—seen anything that betrayed him to be unprincipled or unjust—anything that spoke him of irreligious or immoral habits; that among his own connections he was esteemed and valued—that even Wickham had allowed him merit as a brother, and that she had often heard him speak so affectionately of his sister as to prove him capable of some amiable feeling; that had his actions been what Mr. Wickham represented them, so gross a violation of everything right could hardly have been concealed from the world; and that friendship between a person capable of it, and such an amiable man as Mr. Bingley, was incomprehensible.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
I am a reactionary—so complete a reactionary that my position is incomprehensible to you who live in a veiled lie of social organization and whose sight is not keen enough to pierce the veil.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
