| Library / English Dictionary |
UNSPEAKABLE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Defying expression or description
Example:
a thing of untellable splendor
Synonyms:
indefinable; indescribable; ineffable; unspeakable; untellable; unutterable
Classified under:
Similar:
inexpressible; unexpressible (defying expression)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Exceptionally bad or displeasing
Example:
an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room
Synonyms:
abominable; atrocious; awful; dreadful; painful; terrible; unspeakable
Classified under:
Similar:
bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Too sacred to be uttered
Example:
the ineffable name of the Deity
Synonyms:
ineffable; unnameable; unspeakable; unutterable
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
sacred (concerned with religion or religious purposes)
Context examples:
Friend John, it does rejoice me unspeakable that she is no more to be pained, no more to be worried with our terrible things.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Although I think I had never really feared it, in any season of cool reflection, it was an unspeakable relief to me to have this assurance from her own truthful lips.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
But when I discovered that he, the author at once of my existence and of its unspeakable torments, dared to hope for happiness, that while he accumulated wretchedness and despair upon me he sought his own enjoyment in feelings and passions from the indulgence of which I was for ever barred, then impotent envy and bitter indignation filled me with an insatiable thirst for vengeance.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Hannah had 'dished up' an astonishing breakfast for the traveler, finding it impossible to vent her excitement in any other way, and Meg and Jo fed their mother like dutiful young storks, while they listened to her whispered account of Father's state, Mr. Brooke's promise to stay and nurse him, the delays which the storm occasioned on the homeward journey, and the unspeakable comfort Laurie's hopeful face had given her when she arrived, worn out with fatigue, anxiety, and cold.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
My dear Copperfield, said Mr. Micawber, I need hardly tell you that to have beneath our roof, under existing circumstances, a mind like that which gleams—if I may be allowed the expression—which gleams—in your friend Traddles, is an unspeakable comfort.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
In the difficulty of hearing anything but wind and waves, and in the crowd, and the unspeakable confusion, and my first breathless efforts to stand against the weather, I was so confused that I looked out to sea for the wreck, and saw nothing but the foaming heads of the great waves.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
This gave my aunt such unspeakable satisfaction, that I believe she took a delight in prowling up and down, with her bonnet insanely perched on the top of her head, at times when Mrs. Crupp was likely to be in the way.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
