as in incomprehensible
impossible to understand
advanced scientific theories of ungraspable complexity for the layperson
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Recent Examples of ungraspable
What looked readable from above becomes ungraspable at ground level.
—
Daniel Scheffler, Forbes.com, 30 Apr. 2026
This is an ungraspable tragedy and loss.
—Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 1 Apr. 2026
To me, the self becomes a shifting monument, a territoire in perpetual metamorphosis, alive, fluid, and ungraspable.
—Mame-Diarra Niang, Artforum, 2 Nov. 2025
Its scope is gargantuan and ungraspable, and as such, the appropriate level of grief does not seem human in scale.
—Literary Hub, 21 July 2025
Paul’s attachments are ungraspable, transient, and forever underwritten by raw desire.
—Vlada Gelman, TVLine, 27 Jan. 2025
One gazes into the geographical expanse of this place to try to grasp the ungraspable scale of things.
—Andrew Cockburn, Harper’s Magazine , 5 Jan. 2023
It’s a megagenre, something the poet-philosopher Timothy Morton might call a hyperobject, ungraspable in its ubiquity and scale.
—Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 13 Dec. 2022
The scope of something inexpressible, a mammoth, ungraspable intimation, had overtaken him.
—Greg Jackson, The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2021
Daniel Scheffler, Forbes.com, 30 Apr. 2026
This is an ungraspable tragedy and loss.
—Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 1 Apr. 2026
To me, the self becomes a shifting monument, a territoire in perpetual metamorphosis, alive, fluid, and ungraspable.
—Mame-Diarra Niang, Artforum, 2 Nov. 2025
Its scope is gargantuan and ungraspable, and as such, the appropriate level of grief does not seem human in scale.
—Literary Hub, 21 July 2025
Paul’s attachments are ungraspable, transient, and forever underwritten by raw desire.
—Vlada Gelman, TVLine, 27 Jan. 2025
One gazes into the geographical expanse of this place to try to grasp the ungraspable scale of things.
—Andrew Cockburn, Harper’s Magazine , 5 Jan. 2023
It’s a megagenre, something the poet-philosopher Timothy Morton might call a hyperobject, ungraspable in its ubiquity and scale.
—Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 13 Dec. 2022
The scope of something inexpressible, a mammoth, ungraspable intimation, had overtaken him.
—Greg Jackson, The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ungraspable
Adjective
-
That principle has crumbled so far in the face of Wembanyama’s combination of incomprehensible on-court abilities, youthful enthusiasm and cosmopolitan-unto-eccentric savoir faire.—
Leah Asmelash,
CNN Money,
9 June 2026
-
The comparison, though not quite apples-to-apples, demonstrates the almost incomprehensible scale of the World Cup.—
Henry Bushnell,
New York Times,
8 June 2026
Adjective
-
The novel is built around an encounter between the mysterious title character and a music hall aficionado in London in 1938, the year before World War II.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
16 June 2026
-
In actuality, its premise falls closer to Apple’s Palm Royale or the 2010s ABC drama Revenge, following a mysterious outsider trying to gain a foothold among the elite.—
Angie Han,
HollywoodReporter,
16 June 2026
Adjective
-
So to not have caught this at some earlier stage was just unfathomable to me.—
Kerry Breen,
CBS News,
13 June 2026
-
That level of wealth, all owned by just one person, was once unfathomable.—
Wyatte Grantham-Philips,
Fortune,
12 June 2026
Adjective
-
The instrumental break before the final chorus, with Nilles let loose on Neil Peart’s parts and Lifeson soloing like his Seventies self, was one of the many moments of uncanny resurrection on the tour so far — the essence of Rush, in full, despite the tragic absence of a key third of the band.—
Brian Hiatt,
Rolling Stone,
14 June 2026
-
Perrotta’s novels have been lavishly praised for their uncanny ability to articulate dark, often uncomfortable emotional truths of American culture, using humor and sharp observational skills to explore profound shifts in how people communicate and coexist.—
Christopher Arnott,
Hartford Courant,
14 June 2026
Adjective
-
The world premiere on Sunday – in the presence of Illumination boss Chris Meledandri and director Pierre Coffin, who is also the origin of the minions’ unintelligible chatter – kicks off one of the biggest Annecy Film Festival’s yet.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
19 June 2026
-
The adversaries made for a striking scene, exchanging insults in mutually unintelligible languages in the dead of night.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
16 June 2026
Adjective
-
The Shiatsung Project In a bungalow surrounded by an impenetrable wall, a woman has been raised in isolation by a talking screen mounted on the living room wall, fullfilling her every wish without ever revealing the reasons for its life and existence.—
Kevin Giraud,
Variety,
18 June 2026
-
For 82 games and three-plus playoff rounds, the bunker remained impenetrable.—
Kristian Winfield,
New York Daily News,
9 June 2026
Adjective
-
Such a fracture would normally sink a band, especially one that had been active for a decade, with five ambitious, esoteric albums to their credit and a solid, but perhaps not growing, fan base.—
Reed Jackson,
SPIN,
12 June 2026
-
Sounds kind of esoteric, but actually a lot of fundamental discoveries were made from that system that ended up relating to things like how human chromosomes go awry and give rise to cancer.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
11 June 2026
Adjective
-
Those themes are compelling on paper, but they’re expressed through a confusing mix of abstraction and hyper-local specificity, hidden beneath biker rock riffs, and obscured through Allbrook’s wiry, wailing vocal delivery.—
Cassidy Sollazzo,
Pitchfork,
19 June 2026
-
Project proposals said the lanes are underutilized and confusing to drivers.—
Chris Hoffman,
CBS News,
19 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Ungraspable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ungraspable. Accessed 21 Jun. 2026.
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