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ineffable

ɪnˈɛfəbəladjective

What does ineffable mean?

Too great or too strange to be put into words.

Ineffable, six ways

PlainToo great or too strange to be put into words.
ADHDWords fail. Too big, too strange, too much to say.
Gen ZWhen something is so much that you can’t even. No words, and not because you’re lazy.
MetaphorA room with no door: you know the feeling is in there, and no sentence gets you in.
FormalIncapable of being expressed or described in words; inexpressible.
Like I’m 5A feeling so big that no words are big enough for it. That’s ineffable.

How to pronounce ineffable

in-EF-uh-bul/ɪnˈɛfəbəl/

Ineffable in a sentence

The view from the ridge was ineffable.
The ineffable calm of a snowed-in morning.
Mystics describe the divine as ineffable.

Synonyms for ineffable

indescribablePlainer, and for good or bad.
inexpressibleClose, more neutral.
unspeakableUsually for horrors.

Where ineffable comes from

Latin. In-, not, and effabilis, that can be spoken, from effari, to speak out.

Good to know

Ineffable is almost always positive: beauty, joy, the sacred. For something too terrible for words, unspeakable.

Ineffable meaning, on a Gloss card: Too great or too strange to be put into words.

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In: Words for feelings · Words for ideas