the unthinkable

noun

: something that one cannot accept, believe, or imagine

especially : something that is so bad that one does not want to think about it

And then, the unthinkable happened: the car skidded out of control and crashed.

Examples of the unthinkable in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Bosworth appears as Kathleen Sloane, a corporate defense attorney whose morals are called into question when her clients ask for the unthinkable. — Jack Dunn, Variety, 16 July 2026

Block on a Sunday afternoon to watch El Tri try to do the unthinkable of making the quarterfinals for the first time in 40 years. — Joseph Hernandez, Kansas City Star, 6 July 2026

Almost all sportsbooks remain significantly vulnerable, especially if the Americans do the unthinkable and win five more games. — Doug Kezirian, New York Times, 1 July 2026

And so millions of us around the world have been trying to reach family members, with no way of knowing whether certain calls go unanswered because of electrical outages, which are common even in ordinary times, or the unthinkable. — Gisela Salim-Peyer, The Atlantic, 1 July 2026

Rhymes for the unthinkable

• thinkable