as in inexpressible
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Recent Examples of unsayable
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
And thus stand up for the subconscious, for the unsaid and unsayable, for the historically and personally indigestible, for the unprettified, for the autonomy of an imagination that cannot escape history, and—more than anything else—for black freedom of expression itself.
—Zadie Smith, The New York Review of Books, 27 Feb. 2020
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
And thus stand up for the subconscious, for the unsaid and unsayable, for the historically and personally indigestible, for the unprettified, for the autonomy of an imagination that cannot escape history, and—more than anything else—for black freedom of expression itself.
—Zadie Smith, The New York Review of Books, 27 Feb. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unsayable
- inexpressible
- indefinable
- indescribable
- unknowable
- inexplicable
- incomprehensible
- unaccountable
- unfathomable
Adjective
-
Historians are struggling to recover their inexpressible secrets.—
Erin Maglaque,
The New York Review of Books,
15 Nov. 2024
-
Historians are struggling to recover their inexpressible secrets.—
Erin Maglaque,
The New York Review of Books,
15 Nov. 2024
Adjective
-
Her work often explores indefinable experiences and emotions, intimacy, connection, and the body’s relationship to nature.—
Samantha Bergeson,
IndieWire,
19 Mar. 2025
-
An indefinable musical by a French auteur is headed for millions of streaming subscribers.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
8 Nov. 2024
Adjective
-
Winning back-to-back championships is indescribable, Bennett said as his team celebrated on the ice around him Tuesday night.—
Pierre LeBrun,
New York Times,
18 June 2025
-
The Adventurous Menu at KOL The menu at KOL is quite indescribable.—
Claudia Alarcón,
Forbes.com,
9 June 2025
Adjective
-
Whether or not Lennon or McCartney would buy Leslie’s analysis is of course unknowable, and more important, likely won’t matter to most readers.—
John Tamny,
Forbes.com,
2 July 2025
-
Mike Flanagan’s latest film has the trappings of some of his past projects — a Stephen King adaptation, spooky and unknowable moments, appearances from his close collaborators — but is undoubtedly the director’s riskiest work.—
William Earl,
Variety,
5 June 2025
Adjective
-
His sudden, inexplicable death was a 9-year-old’s introduction to the concept of impermanence.—
James Rainey
Follow,
Los Angeles Times,
8 July 2025
-
Winterton has endured two spontaneous injuries on the same spot on the back of his head, and the show presented them as inexplicable happenings that were beyond the understanding of local physicians.—
Matt Zoller Seitz,
Vulture,
30 June 2025
Adjective
-
Alex Hartman runs the meme page Nolita Dirtbag on Instagram, and tells Rolling Stone the nervous emotions around Mamdani’s win could be in part because of how utterly incomprehensible or cruel many of the Trump administration decisions seem to be.—
CT Jones,
Rolling Stone,
26 June 2025
-
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
Adjective
-
Detractors are concerned that an unelected, unaccountable man holds so much power and is disrupting the federal government mightily from seeking to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to defunding the U.S. Department of Education.—
David Plazas,
The Tennessean,
2 July 2025
-
Worse, school choice can become an excuse for policymakers to skirt hard and immediately needed conversations about an ineffective public-school curriculum, classrooms that have morphed into screen zombies, or unaccountable teacher and student performance.—
Abby McCloskey,
Twin Cities,
18 June 2025
Adjective
-
Future threats to Uruguayan waterfowl conservation notwithstanding, for our group of American bird hunters, another clear-cool afternoon proves ideal to visit the edge of a grove of eucalyptus, a favorite roost for nearly unfathomable numbers of doves.—
Chris Dorsey,
Forbes.com,
30 June 2025
-
Here are the four teams that did the unfathomable and won on the road: Cavs over Warriors (2016): LeBron James had The Block, Kyrie Irving hit that go-ahead shot and Kevin Love had The Stop in a 93-89 win.—
Zach Harper,
New York Times,
20 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unsayable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unsayable. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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