How to Use unthinkable in a Sentence
unthinkable
adjective-
Just as in the bad old days of the Cold War, we are being forced to think the unthinkable.
—Doyle McManuswashington Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 1 May 2022
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Back in the old-timey days, killing off the star of a series was unthinkable.
—Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press, 10 Apr. 2024
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Back in the old-timey days, killing off the star of a series was unthinkable.
—Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press, 26 Mar. 2024
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A decade ago, a split quiver was unthinkable for all but a few.
—Drew Zieff, Outside Online, 18 Oct. 2022
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And in the fall of 1972, the Miami Dolphins did the unthinkable.
—Wsj Books Staff, WSJ, 31 Aug. 2022
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The idea of mocking them to their faces would have been unthinkable.
—Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press, 10 Sep. 2023
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The specter of a debt default is no longer unthinkable.
—Jeff Sommer, New York Times, 11 Aug. 2023
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At the time, the idea that any show would ever be able to match that kind of streak seemed unthinkable.
—Travis Bean, Forbes, 20 Mar. 2021
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Last year, the idea of a rock concert that size would have been unthinkable.
—Kirkland Crawford, Detroit Free Press, 15 Nov. 2021
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Not long ago, this kind of praise would have been unthinkable from him.
—Stephania Taladrid, New Yorker, 21 Apr. 2025
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The idea that this inmate would be here in Cannes, a free man, was unthinkable.
—Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 23 May 2025
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The notion of not having a train route up the coast, for the most part, has long been unthinkable in San Diego.
—Michael Smolens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Feb. 2024
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Just 10 years ago, a line like that would be unthinkable.
—Rob Ledonne, Billboard, 4 Mar. 2022
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Just a few months ago, this would have been unthinkable.
—Drew Nelles, Time, 28 Apr. 2025
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In those days, the Final Four was played on back to back days, unthinkable now.
—Lori Riley, courant.com, 30 Mar. 2022
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The idea of not reaching for the heavens while trapped in the hell of my apartment was unthinkable.
—Ari Marcopoulos; Styling By Miguel Enamorado, Harper's BAZAAR, 23 July 2021
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For his part, Riley has learned to game plan the unthinkable.
—Chuck Carlton, Dallas News, 26 Aug. 2020
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Rhaenyra does the unthinkable in this week’s episode, and she’s not disowned or dead — yet.
—Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2022
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But in the second hour of the trial, the unthinkable happened.
—Washington Post, 3 Dec. 2020
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Stanley, 52 at the time, and band reappeared, fired up the music – and then the unthinkable.
—Holly Gleason, cleveland, 17 Mar. 2021
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That would’ve been unthinkable in the nineteen-fifties.
—Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2022
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In the long-ago, pre-pandemic era of 2019, of course, this would be unthinkable.
—Phillip Valys, sun-sentinel.com, 11 Dec. 2020
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Just six or seven years ago the idea would have been unthinkable.
—K.j. Yossman, Variety, 24 Aug. 2021
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For a band as extreme as ours, that would have been unthinkable.
—Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 25 June 2024
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Most were not wearing face masks, a sight that would have been unthinkable just a month ago.
—The Economist, 8 June 2020
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Less than a year ago, such a broadcast would have been unthinkable.
—Salar Abdoh, The Atlantic, 7 Oct. 2023
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That would always be unthinkable, but even more so this time of year.
—Keith Bierygolick, The Enquirer, 13 Aug. 2021
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For those of us who grew up on network TV, this seems unthinkable.
—Scott D. Pierce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 30 Oct. 2022
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And while a deal to move Duran might have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago, that trade news and the team's struggles are suddenly suggesting several high-profile players could be on the move.
—Peter Chawaga, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 June 2025
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The four-episode real-time crime drama, released by Netflix in March, follows the unsettling and hugely gripping fallout from a seemingly unthinkable crime.
—Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 29 May 2025
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unthinkable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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