unassimilable

adjective

un·​as·​sim·​i·​la·​ble ˌən-ə-ˈsi-mə-lə-bəl How to pronounce unassimilable (audio)
: not able to be taken in or absorbed : not capable of being assimilated
… misfits … and revolutionaries deemed unassimilable by mainstream cultureJames Traub
an unassimilable ideology
unassimilably adverb

Examples of unassimilable in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The ethnoburb is where Asian immigrants settled to be safe from whiteness, to build our own sense of home, and to stay unassimilable. Bianca Mabute-Louie, ELLE, 9 Feb. 2023 The forming of us as alien beings, as diseased vermin, as engagers in practices that were disgusting and vile and unassimilable into the American mainstream. Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 1 Mar. 2022 With no preparation beforehand or discussion after, the teenagers saw mounds of emaciated corpses being bulldozed into mass graves, and other unassimilable horrors. Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 5 Oct. 2021 In the years after the Civil War, both Republicans and Democrats portrayed the Chinese arriving on the Pacific Coast as an invading horde, a heathen, unassimilable people. Jeannie Suk Gersen, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2022 This approach has raised anew the bugbear of the unassimilable Other in our midst. Michael Luo, The New Yorker, 23 Aug. 2021 Moreover, conscripts returning from the war had to reassume civilian identities, thus introducing a troubling doubling of their own psyches: such extraordinary memories were quite simply unassimilable by their quotidian minds. Will Self, Harper's Magazine, 23 Nov. 2021 Many perceived the Chinese to be a heathen race, unassimilable and alien to the American way of life. Michael Luo, The New Yorker, 22 Apr. 2021 Right until the moment his life was extinguished, his art was truculent, bold, arresting and unassimilable. Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 21 Aug. 2019

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

Word History

First Known Use

1873, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of unassimilable was in 1873

Dictionary Entries Near unassimilable

Cite this Entry

“Unassimilable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unassimilable. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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