as in inexpressible
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Recent Examples of unsayable
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
The tennis-ball POV from Challengers, Isabelle Huppert’s cat with the unknowable and unsayable name, the children dressed as Serge Gainsbourg on French TV.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 1 Nov. 2024
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
One senses that there’s an unsayable aspect to it.
—Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 12 Oct. 2020
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
The tennis-ball POV from Challengers, Isabelle Huppert’s cat with the unknowable and unsayable name, the children dressed as Serge Gainsbourg on French TV.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 1 Nov. 2024
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
One senses that there’s an unsayable aspect to it.
—Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 12 Oct. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unsayable
- inexpressible
- indefinable
- indescribable
- unknowable
- inexplicable
- incomprehensible
- unaccountable
- unfathomable
Adjective
-
Much like the famed British poets of World War I, who sought to express the inexpressible, Abu Toha strives to capture the unspeakable carnage, futility, and despair of war.—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
19 Aug. 2025
-
Writing gives mothers the space and the time to express the inexpressible, even when the space and time do so are stolen away.—
Alice Vincent,
Vogue,
7 Aug. 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
-
Spike’s carry such a unique and indescribable feeling.—
Zac Ntim,
Deadline,
15 Aug. 2025
-
It’s been such a privilege to compete here, and to be in the final is just indescribable.—
Ryan Canfield,
FOXNews.com,
10 July 2025
Adjective
-
The Great War, however, turned death into something sudden, cruel and unknowable, as young men—often barely into adulthood—were slaughtered on the front line, their deaths reported to their families days or weeks later.—
Alice Vernon
September 8,
Literary Hub,
8 Sep. 2025
-
That the real Kelley was married during this period is never mentioned (Kelley, in many ways, is wholly unknowable to us).—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
The site compiles information about the 196 seemingly inexplicable events over the history of the church related to the Eucharist, which the faithful believe is the body of Christ.—
Jessie Wardarski,
Chicago Tribune,
5 Sep. 2025
-
And the book’s bracingly straightforward descriptions of often inexplicable behaviors and thought processes, become the hard, stark edges of a sculptural black-and-white photography that is all the more mysterious for apparently having nothing to hide.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
2 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
In fact, the movie isn’t really scary at all — just extremely weird, as well as increasingly incomprehensible toward the end.—
Jordan Mintzer,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Sep. 2025
-
Then there’s an incomprehensible scene in which Stuhlbarg’s Frederik storms in and out of the kitchen angrily, having turned his music up to an unlistenable volume, while Alma and Maggie—a guest in their home that evening—try to have a serious conversation.—
Stephanie Zacharek,
Time,
29 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
For some of them, especially those animated by the conviction — not entirely unreasonable — that real power in America lies with shadowy, malevolent and unaccountable forces, the Epstein mythology is too central to their worldview to let go of.—
Michelle Goldberg,
Mercury News,
6 Sep. 2025
-
At this point in its history, the theory goes, the United States requires a willful and largely unaccountable power to impose changes that leaders with more delicate sensibilities and procedural scruples cannot ever accomplish.—
Russell Muirhead,
Foreign Affairs,
5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
For a disaster so vast and so unfathomable, some sort of grounding feels necessary, some little point to hold on to, some faces to remember, but even the actual story of the bus and its temporary inhabitants feels a touch too small for the grand scale Greengrass is working on here.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
6 Sep. 2025
-
And the way that people marginalize and attack the Trans community, especially politically, is unfathomable to me, and so unbearably cruel.—
Anna Kaufman,
USA Today,
4 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unsayable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unsayable. Accessed 15 Sep. 2025.
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