inalienable

adjective

in·alien·able (ˌ)i-ˈnāl-yə-nə-bəl

-ˈnā-lē-ə-nə-

: incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred

inalienable rights

inalienability

(ˌ)i-ˌnāl-yə-nə-ˈbi-lə-tē

-ˌnā-lē-ə-nə-

noun

inalienably

(ˌ)i-ˈnāl-yə-nə-blē

-ˈnā-lē-ə-nə-

adverb

Did you know?

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

Recent Examples on the Web And Taiwan has been an inalienable part of China's territory since ancient times. —

Louis Casiano, Fox News, 21 Sep. 2023 No person or group should ever be denied their inalienable human rights. —

Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2023 People’s control over their own bodies is an inalienable right that must be restored. —

Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, 23 June 2023 Despite the hurdles, comedians continue to negotiate their inalienable need to do stand-up to the point that money comes as a secondary concern. —

Jake Kroeger, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2023 An opinion poll conducted last August by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation showed that 52.9% of citizens surveyed viewed Pelosi’s visit favorably despite the escalating tensions, and that 81.6% opposed Beijing’s One China policy that regards Taiwan as an inalienable part of China’s territory. —

Eric Cheung, CNN, 1 June 2023 Early learning—especially the education of children between birth and age three, which is the period when the most brain development takes place—is widely viewed either as the inalienable labor of mothers, or as an unskilled job rightly left to low-status women. —

Elif Batuman, The New Yorker, 1 Sep. 2020 If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. —

Peter J. Travers, National Review, 30 Dec. 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'inalienable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.