as in inexpressible
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Recent Examples of unsayable
All fair, but an uncomfortable couch and a passion for the art of the unsayable are not reasons enough to kill oneself.
—
Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 29 Oct. 2025
These days the words become real only for the speaker—the air whispers to me—the listener is stealing away,
back to its dark habitat, where all is
unsayable.
—Jorie Graham, The New York Review of Books, 31 July 2025
Hordes of us are out there hoping to say the unsayable.
—Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 28 Mar. 2025
And the true heroes, consequently, are those who dare to say the unsayable.
—Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 5 Sep. 2024
This was a composer tasked with saying the unsayable against the unspeakable.
—Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2024
American literature took a while to say the unsayable.
—S. C. Cornell, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2023
With remarkable speed, however, the unsayable has become close to conventional wisdom.
—Michael Barnett, Foreign Affairs, 14 Apr. 2023
Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 29 Oct. 2025
These days the words become real only for the speaker—the air whispers to me—the listener is stealing away,
back to its dark habitat, where all is
unsayable.
—Jorie Graham, The New York Review of Books, 31 July 2025
Hordes of us are out there hoping to say the unsayable.
—Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 28 Mar. 2025
And the true heroes, consequently, are those who dare to say the unsayable.
—Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 5 Sep. 2024
This was a composer tasked with saying the unsayable against the unspeakable.
—Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2024
American literature took a while to say the unsayable.
—S. C. Cornell, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2023
With remarkable speed, however, the unsayable has become close to conventional wisdom.
—Michael Barnett, Foreign Affairs, 14 Apr. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unsayable
- inexpressible
- indefinable
- indescribable
- unknowable
- inexplicable
- incomprehensible
- unaccountable
- unfathomable
Adjective
-
If everything is systematically interlinked, then life’s transcendent beauty is inextricable from its inexpressible horrors and outright silliness, like the jarring swings between slapstick and tragedy in a Wile E. Coyote cartoon.—
Jack Denton,
Vulture,
6 Oct. 2025
-
Instead, there were chuckles to hold back anger and carefully chosen words to express what felt inexpressible.—
Tim Britton,
New York Times,
29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
For all Sacks’ efforts to remain an indefinable cult figure outside the mainstream, he has lately been caught in Hollywood’s tractor beam, with several film scripts in advanced stages of development.—
Julian Sancton,
HollywoodReporter,
15 Aug. 2025
-
This East Coast city earns high marks year after year for its various dining options, museums, and the indefinable, electric energy of the city that never sleeps.—
Elizabeth Cantrell,
Travel + Leisure,
8 July 2025
Adjective
-
As del Toro enters the Oscars’ race with one of his best projects to date, the return of the feature that founded his filmography serves as a kind of toast to the mastery of art, life, and indescribable spaces between.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
8 Dec. 2025
-
The opportunity to see her mom and each member of her family is indescribable, Joseph said.—
Grace Zokovitch,
Boston Herald,
27 Nov. 2025
Adjective
-
The Internet couldn’t just be written by random people whose reliability is unknowable, alongside scientific papers beyond the comprehension of laypeople.—
Jimmy Wales,
Time,
28 Oct. 2025
-
The art of elusiveness — that quality of unknowable magnetism — has almost vanished.—
Benjamin Svetkey,
HollywoodReporter,
22 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
So the choice to focus this one on a makeover for Margaret, a character two levels removed from the plot, is particularly inexplicable.—
Ben Rosenstock,
Vulture,
5 Jan. 2026
-
The network put the kibosh on this story for inexplicable reasons.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
4 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
The scope of the effort is almost incomprehensible, both for its sheer size and persistence on a low-lying peninsula, where the delineation between land and sea has always been somewhat unclear and is becoming less so.—
Amy Green,
Miami Herald,
9 Jan. 2026
-
In these cases, the equations will predict a fluid moving in some unphysical, incomprehensible way — spinning into an impossibly fast vortex, for instance, or instantly reversing its flow.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
9 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
While our current board is a bit better about this, for most of the last four years, the majority on our school board has been unaccountable and unavailable to the public.—
Grace Tucker,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
15 Oct. 2025
-
Without formal recognition, unregistered unions are not able to collect union dues from members or represent them in disputes, leaving workers legally unprotected and employers unaccountable.—
Sourcing Journal,
Sourcing Journal,
15 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
God grant me the grace to forgive also, despite my unfathomable trauma.—
John Blake,
CNN Money,
8 Jan. 2026
-
On the contrary, over his previous four games (featuring three Knicks losses), Towns shot 4-of-9 from the field against the New Orleans Pelicans, 5-of-10 against the San Antonio Spurs, 6-of-16 against the Philadelphia 76ers and an unfathomable one-of-four against the Detroit Pistons.—
Kristian Winfield,
New York Daily News,
8 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Unsayable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unsayable. Accessed 10 Jan. 2026.
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