as in mysterious
impossible to understand
advanced scientific theories of ungraspable complexity for the layperson
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Recent Examples of ungraspable
Paul’s attachments are ungraspable, transient, and forever underwritten by raw desire.
—
Vlada Gelman, TVLine, 27 Jan. 2025
Eraserhead was so ungraspable, so far into left field, that most critics dismissed it at the time.
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
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
The ecological relationships that Darwin brings to our attention tell us of a world of bonds much more complex and ungraspable than had ever previously been supposed.
—Longreads, 23 Mar. 2021
The Internet of Things is an ungraspable future, particularly when the fact of a future for Earth at all sometimes sounds implausible.
—Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 14 May 2020
The river itself was a standard-issue metaphor of time’s ungraspable flux and constancy.
—Wells Tower, Outside Online, 11 July 2018
Vlada Gelman, TVLine, 27 Jan. 2025
Eraserhead was so ungraspable, so far into left field, that most critics dismissed it at the time.
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
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
The ecological relationships that Darwin brings to our attention tell us of a world of bonds much more complex and ungraspable than had ever previously been supposed.
—Longreads, 23 Mar. 2021
The Internet of Things is an ungraspable future, particularly when the fact of a future for Earth at all sometimes sounds implausible.
—Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 14 May 2020
The river itself was a standard-issue metaphor of time’s ungraspable flux and constancy.
—Wells Tower, Outside Online, 11 July 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ungraspable
Adjective
-
All do so, apart from the titular madman, who has a mysterious reason to stay behind.—
Rafa Sales Ross,
Variety,
20 June 2025
-
The story in the graphic novel picks up 10 years after the events of the eponymous 1980 movie, as Joliet Jake disappears from prison under mysterious circumstances.—
Kory Grow,
Rolling Stone,
20 June 2025
Adjective
-
In a brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible (BANI) world where change is the only constant, the leadership traits that once earned respect—tenacity, decisiveness and stoicism—are no longer enough.—
Arthi Rabikrisson,
Forbes.com,
18 June 2025
-
Each episode represents an hour in the staff’s frenetic, 15-hour day that culminates with a mass casualty shooting and an incomprehensible case of the measles involving an unvaccinated child.—
Lynette Rice,
Deadline,
12 June 2025
Adjective
-
McNeeley was about 4, and playing against first graders, 6- and 7-year olds, which is almost unfathomable.—
Dom Amore,
Hartford Courant,
25 June 2025
-
In a turn that once seemed unfathomable, Spanish-language music has become a mainstay in the top 10 of the U.S. Billboard 200 and Hot 100 charts, and in 2024 Latin music in the U.S. reached a record-breaking $1.4 billion in revenue.—
Ernesto Lechner,
Los Angeles Times,
24 June 2025
Adjective
-
In Girls with Long Shadows, the triplets are linked by that uncanny psychological and physical sibling familiarity; if one sister has a headache, the other two’s temples pulse with empathetic pain.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
25 June 2025
-
That the vice president would be more amusing with less hair, a perfectly rounded face, and an uncanny, doll-like stare?—
Miles Klee,
Rolling Stone,
25 June 2025
Adjective
-
As satire, Next to Heaven is unintelligible, as though someone is universalizing their own hangups and then skewering them for clout.—
Book Marks
June 20,
Literary Hub,
20 June 2025
-
Filled with uncanny creatures and unintelligible language, the book's inspiration came, Serafini muses, either from aliens, or his cat.—
David Morgan,
CBS News,
30 May 2025
Adjective
-
Built inside a mountain some 300 feet underground and reinforced by layers of concrete, the plant, which is the most likely target of a potential American strike, is impenetrable by any bomb except the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).—
Adeola Adeosun,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 June 2025
-
This must be key to Trump’s impenetrable calculations.—
Nick Paton Walsh,
CNN Money,
19 June 2025
Adjective
-
Of course, Yamagata is a long way to go just to peep some jellyfish, so combine a visit with the misty temples of nearby Dewa Sanzan, three mountains sacred to the ascetics of the esoteric Shugendo religion.—
Jessica Kozuka,
Travel + Leisure,
27 May 2025
-
They: • Invest not just in systems, but in states • Optimize not just for growth, but for resonance • Scale not from stress, but from coherence This isn’t esoteric.—
Carrie Anne Yu,
Forbes.com,
20 May 2025
Adjective
-
Their final products include paintings, sketches, audio recordings, sculptures and videos of some of the Louvre’s most iconic artworks, as well as some of its more obscure.—
Eli Wizevich,
Smithsonian Magazine,
27 June 2025
-
Once a relatively obscure topic, college accreditation has become a frequent target of conservative criticism.—
Garrett Shanley,
Miami Herald,
26 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ungraspable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ungraspable. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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