inscrutable
adjective
in·scru·ta·ble
in-ˈskrü-tə-bəl 
: not readily investigated, interpreted, or understood : mysterious
an inscrutable smile
inscrutable motives
Did you know?
Scrutinizing the inscrutable may be futile: even close scrutiny can fail to decipher it. Scrutinizing the scrutable, on the other hand, is likely to yield some understanding. All of these scrut- words have the same Latin root: scrutari, meaning “to search or examine.” While scrutiny, scrutinize, and inscrutable all prove themselves useful in everyday discourse, English speakers don’t tend to call much on scrutable, which functions as a synonym of comprehensible.
Synonyms of inscrutable
Examples of inscrutable in a Sentence
Supersymmetry is a magic mirror, and everything in what we imagine to be the real world has its ghostly, inscrutable mirror image.
—
Ian Stewart, Prospect, September 2003
Of all the myths that have grown up around Alan Greenspan, the most powerful is the idea that he's willfully inscrutable.
—James Surowiecki, New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2001
That wily politicians might adopt Franklin's distinction between appearance and reality to become inscrutable confidence men did not seem to trouble him.
—John H. Summers, Journal of American History, December 2000
an inscrutable work of art
He was a quiet, inscrutable man.
Ian Stewart, Prospect, September 2003
Of all the myths that have grown up around Alan Greenspan, the most powerful is the idea that he's willfully inscrutable.
—James Surowiecki, New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2001
That wily politicians might adopt Franklin's distinction between appearance and reality to become inscrutable confidence men did not seem to trouble him.
—John H. Summers, Journal of American History, December 2000
an inscrutable work of art
He was a quiet, inscrutable man.
Recent Examples on the Web
In a bid to rekindle the couple’s honeymoon phase, Yasmin troubleshoots by wheedling a chief executive role for him at payment processing company Tender (run by Max Minghella‘s inscrutable puppet-master Whitney Halberstram), and throwing her husband a lavish costume party for his 40th birthday.
—Natalie Oganesyan, Deadline, 18 Jan. 2026
In this inscrutable economy, prestige has a way of slipping between people and objects.
—John Phipps, New Yorker, 17 Jan. 2026
Still others were more inscrutable.
—Katie Palmer, STAT, 14 Jan. 2026
Take the three men from Chicago who, motivated by some inscrutable force, recently attempted to set a Guinness World Record for fastest time visiting every single MARTA transit station.
—Aj Willingham, AJC.com, 12 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for inscrutable
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Natalie Oganesyan, Deadline, 18 Jan. 2026
In this inscrutable economy, prestige has a way of slipping between people and objects.
—John Phipps, New Yorker, 17 Jan. 2026
Still others were more inscrutable.
—Katie Palmer, STAT, 14 Jan. 2026
Take the three men from Chicago who, motivated by some inscrutable force, recently attempted to set a Guinness World Record for fastest time visiting every single MARTA transit station.
—Aj Willingham, AJC.com, 12 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for inscrutable
Cite this Entry
“Inscrutable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inscrutable. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
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inscrutable
adjective
in·scru·ta·ble
in-ˈskrüt-ə-bəl
: not easily understood : mysterious
an inscrutable expression
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