unthinkable
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ʌnˈθɪŋkəbəl/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Adjective
[edit]unthinkable (comparative more unthinkable, superlative most unthinkable)
- Incapable of being believed; incredible.
- Inconceivable or unimaginable; extremely improbable in a way that goes against common sense.
- Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person, provided it comes out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life's further development - Lewis Mumford
- 2011 October 23, Tom Fordyce, “2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France”, in BBC Sport[1]:
- With 16 minutes left on the clock and the tension climbing through the roof, Trinh-Duc tried his luck with a penalty from just inside halfway only to push it wide, but the unthinkable now seemed a real possibility.
- 2021 November 10, Panarat Thepgumpanat, Chayut Setboonsarng, “Thai court rules students' royal reform call sought to overthrow monarchy”, in Reuters[2], Reuters, retrieved 2021-11-10:
- The ruling also comes amid calls from an opposition party for a review of the royal insult law, which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
- 2023 August 23, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Check out Britain's famous station hotels: St Pancras”, in RAIL, number 990, page 61:
- It reopened as St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London in the early part of this century, and it now seens unthinkable to demolish such a structure.
- Extremely improper; extremely at odds with norms of expected behavior; taboo.
- 2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in SCP Foundation[3], archived from the original on 29 May 2024:
- But... No. Luján broke his violin. That part definitely happened; he remembers it with distressing clarity. His relationship with Luján has never been much more than tepidly professional, but the man was a professional. To vandalise a precious instrument like that would be unthinkable for him, or anybody in the orchestra. There is something wrong.
With everybody.
Except him.
Translations
[edit]incapable of being believed; incredible
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inconceivable or unimaginable; extremely improbable in a way that goes against common sense
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References
[edit]- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “unthinkable”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.