ineffably


Also found in: Thesaurus, Wikipedia.

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.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adv.1.ineffably - to an inexpressible degreeineffably - to an inexpressible degree; "she was looking very young tonight, and, as usual, indescribably beautiful, in a simple strapless dress of a green and white silky cotton"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations

ineffably

[ɪnˈefəblɪ] ADV (liter) her face was ineffably well-bredsu cara era de una distinción indescriptible or (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

ineffably

adv (form: = indescribably) → unsäglich (geh), → unaussprechlich; Walters is ineffably entertainingWalters ist unbeschreiblich unterhaltsam
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
References in classic literature ?
It is an ineffably oozy, stringy affair, most frequently found in the tubs of sperm, after a prolonged squeezing, and subsequent decanting.
Those leaping horses, striking sparks from the cobbles in their forward lunge, were creatures to be ineffably admired.
Suddenly, among them, he lit on a small volume of verse which he had ordered because the name had attracted him: "The House of Life." He took it up, and found himself plunged in an atmosphere unlike any he had ever breathed in books; so warm, so rich, and yet so ineffably tender, that it gave a new and haunting beauty to the most elementary of human passions.
So, then, he felt himself ineffably superior to me in every respect!
world, perhaps, excepting always the ineffably insipid diversion
The first breath on opening the door is so ineffably pure that it makes me gasp, and I feel a black and sinful object in the midst of all the spotlessness.
He said, and on his Son with Rayes direct Shon full, he all his Father full exprest Ineffably into his face receiv'd, And thus the filial Godhead answering spake.
I wish I knew more about him.' She stopped a moment, and I swear her face was ineffably holy as she said, 'I could have made him a good wife.'
"They understood that once paradise was paved, something ineffably precious would be lost forever," said Robin Zanotti, president of the nonprofit C&O Canal Trust.
Given their physical existence and the historic contribution of the seminaries to religious extremism and terrorism in the country and above all the occurring of the ineffably gruesome Peshawar carnage on children, regulating and registering madrassas should have been quite easy.
'In the mad heart does reside A wild, dark desire An ancient desire, ineffably sad To be one with the blackness For a moment A moment.
Or, more accurately, I knew her: The 17-year-old high school student portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis in the 1978 horror classic "Halloween" ineffably chimed with my own contradictory selfhood as an adolescent girl coming of age in a perpetually autumnal Midwest.