inexorable

adjective in·ex·o·ra·ble \ (ˌ)i-ˈneks-rə-bəl , -ˈnek-sə- , -ˈneg-zə-rə- \

|Updated on: 4 Aug 2018

Examples: inexorable in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of inexorable

: not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped : relentless

inexorable progress

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inexorability

play \(ˌ)i-ˌneks-rə-ˈbi-lə-tē, -ˌnek-sə-, -ˌneg-zə-\ noun

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inexorableness

play \(ˌ)i-ˈneks-rə-bəl-nəs, -ˈnek-sə-, -ˈneg-zə-\ noun

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inexorably

play \(ˌ)i-ˈneks-rə-blē, -ˈnek-sə-, -ˈneg-zə-rə-\ adverb

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Examples of inexorable in a Sentence

the inexorable rise of a political movement

Recent Examples of inexorable from the Web

But most recently, the number of orcas here has dwindled to just 75, a 30-year-low in what seems to be an inexorable, perplexing decline.

— New York Times, "Orcas of the Pacific Northwest Are Starving and Disappearing," 9 July 2018
In the true, inexorable tradition of Greek tragedy, there is no getting out of it.

— gary thompson, Philly.com, "Think these movies are too gory? The Greek myths they're based on are worse," 12 July 2018
Call it progress, the inevitable inexorable direction of taking control from the driver for the sake of automation, which incidentally, was first offered way back in the ’60s in the form of cruise control.

— robert duffer, chicagotribune.com, "The shift is on: Manual transmissions may be endangered but they're also beloved," 11 July 2018
Ratcliff and Eric Libby, a theoretical biologist at Umeå University in Sweden, proposed 4 years ago that a ratcheting effect took over, driving an inexorable increase in complexity.

— elizabeth pennisi, Science | AAAS, "The momentous transition to multicellular life may not have been so hard after all," 28 June 2018
The seeming inexorable shift toward consumers buying on the web, instead of at stores, isn’t likely to be affected by Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling that online retailers have to pay sales tax, experts say.

— elizabeth weise, USA TODAY, "Supreme Court ruling on sales tax will bring headache to smaller online sellers," 21 June 2018
But the seemingly inexorable decline continued apace.

— anthony a. williams, Washington Post, "Washington has come far in 50 years, but is there a way to make it work for everyone?," 27 Mar. 2018
The Spin Doctors may be hold the record for the slowest inexorable climb of an album up the charts.

— mel shields, sacbee, "Spin Doctors and Vanilla Ice headline Reno's annual brews and blues festival," 14 June 2018
Hollinghurst’s narrative orbits around the disparate fates of a father and son, but contained within its epic scope is an elegiac portrait of the inexorable power of time.

— time staff, Time, "Best Novels of 2018 So Far," 11 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'inexorable.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

The Latin antecedent of inexorable is inexorabilis, which is itself a combination of the prefix in-, meaning "not," plus exorabilis, meaning pliant or "capable of being moved by entreaty." It's a fitting etymology for inexorable. You can beseech and implore until you're blue in the face, but that won't have any effect on something that's inexorable. Inexorable has been a part of the English language since the 1500s. Originally, it was often applied to persons, or sometimes to personified things ("deaf and inexorable laws"). These days, it is usually applied to things, as in "inexorable monotony" or "an inexorable trend." In such cases, it essentially means "unyielding" or "inflexible."