ineffable

Related to ineffable: gaudiness

in·ef·fa·ble

(ĭn-ĕf′ə-bəl)

adj.

1. Incapable of being expressed; indescribable or unutterable: ineffable joy.

2. Not to be uttered; taboo: the ineffable name of God.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin ineffābilis : in-, not; see in-¹ + effābilis, utterable (from effārī, to utter : ex-, ex- + fārī, to speak; see bhā- in Indo-European roots).]

in·ef′fa·bil′i·ty, in·ef′fa·ble·ness n.

in·ef′fa·bly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ineffable

(ɪnˈɛfəbəl)

adj

1. too great or intense to be expressed in words; unutterable

2. too sacred to be uttered

3. indescribable; indefinable

[C15: from Latin ineffābilis unutterable, from in-¹ + effābilis, from effārī to utter, from fārī to speak]

inˌeffaˈbility, inˈeffableness n

inˈeffably adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

in•ef•fa•ble

(ɪnˈɛf ə bəl)

adj.

1. incapable of being expressed or described in words; inexpressible: ineffable joy.

2. not to be spoken because of its sacredness; unutterable: the ineffable name of the deity.

[1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French < Latin ineffābilis= in-³ + effabilis=effā(rī) to utter, say (ef- + fari- to speak) + -bilis -ble]

in•ef`fa•bil′i•ty, in•ef′fa•ble•ness, n.

in•ef′fa•bly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.	1.	ineffable - defying expression or description; "indefinable yearnings"; "indescribable beauty"; "ineffable ecstasy"; "inexpressible anguish"; "unspeakable happiness"; "unutterable contempt"; "a thing of untellable splendor" indescribable, unspeakable, untellable, unutterable, indefinable inexpressible, unexpressible - defying expression
	2.	ineffable - too sacred to be uttered; "the ineffable name of the Deity" unnameable, unutterable, unspeakable sacred - concerned with religion or religious purposes; "sacred texts"; "sacred rites"; "sacred music"

ineffable

adjective indescribable, unspeakable, indefinable, beyond words, unutterable, inexpressible, incommunicable the ineffable sadness of many of the portraits

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

ineffable

adjective

That cannot be described:

incommunicable, indefinable, indescribable, inexpressible, undescribable, unspeakable, unutterable.

Idioms: beyond description, defying description.

Translations

nevýslovný

unaussprechlich

άφατος

ineffabile

ineffabilis

ineffable

[ɪnˈefəbl] ADJ (liter) → inefable

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

ineffable

adj (form) → unsäglich (geh), → unsagbar, unaussprechlich

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

ineffable

[ɪnˈefəbl] adj (frm) → ineffabile

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

They then fell upon each other's neck and wept scalding rills down each other's spine in token of their banishment to the Realm of Ineffable Bosh.

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Sometimes a mischievous child risked his skin and bones for the ineffable pleasure of driving a pin into Quasimodo's hump.

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Better for thee to say: "Ineffable is it, and nameless, that which is pain and sweetness to my soul, and also the hunger of my bowels."

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Such tranquil stupidity, such supernatural gravity, such self- righteousness, and such ineffable self-complacency as were in the countenance and attitude of that gray-bodied, dark-winged, bald-headed, and preposterously uncomely bird!

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The mystic sees the ineffable, and the psycho-pathologist the unspeakable.

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I yearn for it; and when I drink it I savour every drop, and afterwards I feel my soul swimming in ineffable happiness.

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The hearing of those wild notes always de- pressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sad- ness.

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Between the past and the present was an ineffable abyss.

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"Had you seen her this morning, Mary," he continued, "attending with such ineffable sweetness and patience to all the demands of her aunt's stupidity, working with her, and for her, her colour beautifully heightened as she leant over the work, then returning to her seat to finish a note which she was previously engaged in writing for that stupid woman's service, and all this with such unpretending gentleness, so much as if it were a matter of course that she was not to have a moment at her own command, her hair arranged as neatly as it always is, and one little curl falling forward as she wrote, which she now and then shook back, and in the midst of all this, still speaking at intervals to me, or listening, and as if she liked to listen, to what I said.

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"Not at all!" replied the unknown, with ineffable majesty.

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At the bottom of the steps she stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable joy, an attitude of matchless grace and dignity.

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Her lips trembled into a smile, but the eyes remained distant and serious, as if bent on some ineffable vision.