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Alien, alienable, inalienable—it's easy enough to see the Latin word alius, meaning "other," at the root of these three words. Alien joined our language in the 14th century, and one of its earliest meanings was "belonging to another." By the early 1600s that sense of alien had led to alienable, an adjective describing something you can give away or transfer to another owner. The word unalienable came about as its opposite, but so did inalienable, a word most likely borrowed into English on its own from French. Inalienable is the more common form today, and although we often see both forms used to modify "rights," it was unalienable that was used in the Declaration of Independence to describe life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Examples of inalienable in a Sentence
Rodney Carmichael,
NPR,
3 June 2026
This includes re-enshrining, codifying and strengthening our inalienable rights in the United States and abolishing ICE to ensure immigration and the struggle of migrants is treated as a civilian one, requiring support instead of brutality and criminalization.
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Lucas Robinson,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 May 2026
This is something that Black voting-rights advocates, from Frederick Douglass to Kwame Ture, long understood; that no person’s rights could really be inalienable if any person’s rights were trampled.
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Vann R. Newkirk Ii,
The Atlantic,
2 May 2026
Tehran’s right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes is inalienable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters following his official visit to China.
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Alexandra Bacallao,
NBC news,
15 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for inalienable
Cite this Entry
“Inalienable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inalienable. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
inalienable
adjective
Legal Definition
inalienable
adjective
