How to Use ineffable in a Sentence
ineffable
adjective-
For millennia, human beings have tried to impose their own order on the ineffable, not only through religion and other systems of knowledge but also through machines.
— Margaret O’Mara, Foreign Affairs, 1 Nov. 2022 -
What is the ineffable deficit between very good and great?
— Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Sep. 2022 -
The ineffable is that which cannot or should not be uttered.
— Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 4 Apr. 2018 -
That ineffable quality that drew him to her in the first place?
— Kayleigh Roberts, Marie Claire, 25 Nov. 2018 -
That will to stardom, that ineffable self-belief, is the key to Fanny’s code, and Michele cracks it.
— Peter Marks, Washington Post, 28 Sep. 2022 -
There are people who, in the depths of some ineffable despair or rage, desire to exit the world in a hail of bullets and a flood of blood.
— The Editors, National Review, 2 Oct. 2017 -
But this new Blade Runner is lacking the ineffable thing that a self-aware android might crave most: a soul.
— Richard Lawson, vanityfair.com, 3 Oct. 2017 -
Sometimes an actor seemed to glow with a private, ineffable fire, only to lose the spark halfway through the play.
— Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 31 Jan. 2022 -
There's also an ineffable quality to the risk in all this.
— Andrew Sharp, SI.com, 2 July 2018 -
Some ineffable X factor that transcends all of the above?
— Jp Brammer, Los Angeles Times, 7 Feb. 2024 -
Watch the movie to get a sense of that ineffable ingredient, and the sometimes-subtle ways that Streisand deploys it.
— Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 26 May 2022 -
When trying to quantify the ineffable allure of the femme française, one obvious trait is right in our faces—and theirs, much of the time: French girl hair.
— Calin Van Paris, Vogue, 25 Sep. 2017 -
After a lifetime of her ineffable grace on stage, in film, and on television, Tyson died on Jan. 28 at 96.
— Natalie Johnson, NBC News, 1 Feb. 2021 -
That ineffable Kylie essence is always present regardless of whether Minogue wrote on a song or not.
— Rebecca Milzoff, Billboard, 29 Feb. 2024 -
If so, the variations have been endless, the themes ineffable.
— Mark Rozzo, Vanities, 30 May 2018 -
When Liszt was on the rise, in his teens and twenties, the man of the hour was Sigismond Thalberg, an Austrian pianist prized for his ineffable singing line.
— Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2023 -
The sloth, about the size of a large sheepdog, hung upside down and stared at me with an expression of ineffable sadness on its furry face.
— New York Times, 29 May 2018 -
There's this ineffable sense of stiffness at lower frame rates that, for certain types of games, is a detriment.
— Wired, 8 Dec. 2019 -
La’eeb, the ineffable mascot, held a rainbow banner that was on fire.
— Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 3 Dec. 2022 -
There does seem to be something extra going on with the food these days: crispier dosas, brighter flavors, more of that ineffable taste of home.
— Soleil Ho, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 July 2022 -
The whole event is a collaboration between the ineffable space of your unique soul and a world made by others; and the end result is a one-of-a-kind encounter.
— Time, 20 Sep. 2023 -
The object of Hoare’s own quest is less actual whales than Dürer’s access to the ineffable.
— BostonGlobe.com, 26 Sep. 2021 -
An attempt to capture the ineffable feelings of kids as summer ends falls flat.
— Matthew Lickona, National Review, 13 Aug. 2022 -
By stirring us so powerfully, birds bring us up against the ineffable in a telling, pathos-laden way.
— Ben Downing, WSJ, 16 Nov. 2018 -
To me, its defining trait is an ineffable comic sound, as nervy and raucous as the subway during rush hour.
— Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2022 -
But this approach misses the essence of this ineffable concept.
— Ray Kurzweil, Discover Magazine, 25 Sep. 2012 -
From its honeyed starch to its tangy tartar and savory fillet, the taste of the Filet-O-Fish carries an ineffable umami-ness.
— New York Times, 20 Apr. 2021 -
There is something ineffable about a monarch's lying in state.
— WSJ, 17 Sep. 2022 -
Father Couturier’s belief in art as an expression of the ineffable was the great epiphany to the de Menils.
— Meryle Secrest, WSJ, 5 Apr. 2018 -
Your voice is the ineffable quality that makes your writing unmistakably yours.
— Jd Barker, Rolling Stone, 2 Aug. 2024
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ineffable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Last Updated: