Meaning of unthinkable in English

unthinkable

adjective

/ʌnˈθɪŋ.kə.bəl/ us

/ʌnˈθɪŋ.kə.bəl/

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so shocking that it cannot be imagined as possible:

Today, we see growing acceptance of gay marriage - something that would have been unthinkable a generation ago.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

not able to happen, exist, or be true

impossibleYou can't be at my party and at work at the same time – it's impossible!
be out of the questionGoing on holiday under these circumstances is out of the question.
no wayThere is absolutely no way your mother will allow that.
inconceivableIt's inconceivable that the president didn't know about the military attack.
unthinkableA wide-scale nuclear attack is unthinkable.

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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Not believable

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the unthinkable

idiom

an unthinkable event or situation:

The unthinkable had happened - his secret activities had been discovered by the press.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Not believable

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(Definition of unthinkable from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

unthinkable | American Dictionary

unthinkable

adjective

/ʌnˈθɪŋ·kə·bəl/

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too shocking or unlikely to be imagined as possible:

A world without music would be unthinkable.

the unthinkable

idiom

something that is very unlikely or undesirable:

The president’s car did the unthinkable – it stopped at a red light.

(Definition of unthinkable from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of unthinkable

unthinkable

In fact, in the 1960s open criticism of the leading defenders of 'the law of development' became almost unthinkable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There was even a television-broadcast debate on this controversy,19 which previously would have been unthinkable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He looked at me in surprise ; to him it was unthinkable that someone would not believe.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The odd hexagon or octagon extends the principle further, but departure from the technical method is unthinkable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Canons require their own others, texts that are both within and without, to think the unthinkable within their disputed domains.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Such an alternative vision was made unthinkable through the obliteration of certain evocative places.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

If tolerance of established race and gender inequalities is considered to be wholly unacceptable, any policy which further institutionalises such practices must surely be unthinkable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They both came to inspire apparent fantasies of immortality in their subjects, who found it simultaneously exhilarating and unthinkable to imagine living without them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Were this not a fundamental assumption, the idea that a leitmotif recurs for musical-formal reasons in defiance of text would be unthinkable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In other countries too, such parties have made inroads unthinkable not long ago.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Leaders have been known to make an art of ' 'thinking the unthinkable' '.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

If chiefly aggrandizement was unthinkable, so was chiefly accountability : a chief could hardly be held personally accountable for property which belonged to the stool.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

What had previously been unthinkable suddenly became feasible.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The emerging rail system made travel possible with a speed unthinkable in earlier times.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

By the time of his death it filled over a thousand pages ; publication had long been unthinkable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of unthinkable?

Translations of unthinkable

in Chinese (Traditional)

難以想像的，不可思議的, 難以想像的事件（或局面）…

Meaning of unthinkable in English

the unthinkable

unthinkable | American Dictionary

the unthinkable

Examples of unthinkable

Translations of unthinkable

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