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
-
People doing things that are indescribable and not for today to discuss.—
Adeola Adeosun,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 May 2025
-
People pouring through our borders, unchecked, people doing things that are indescribable and not for today to discuss.—
Avery Lotz,
Axios,
26 May 2025
Adjective
-
To Vulcan, avoiding unknowable businesses isn’t being conservative.—
Jim Osman,
Forbes.com,
15 Apr. 2025
-
At the heart of every biography, though, lies a lacuna—something unknowable, no matter how candid or heavily documented the subject, no matter how familiar or diligent the biographer.—
Casey Cep,
New Yorker,
14 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Oh, an inexplicable Rube Goldberg machine of death?—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
22 May 2025
-
But through a series of inexplicable events, the clinic was completely empty on Saturday when the car exploded outside.—
Elizabeth Wolfe,
CNN Money,
20 May 2025
Adjective
-
Consumers have gotten used to a complicated annual plan selection, confusing industry jargon, and incomprehensible coverage policies.—
Dan Gingiss,
Forbes.com,
11 Apr. 2025
-
Every version of it, whether recorded in a studio, live with a full orchestra or only a piano, just rails through absolutely incomprehensible storytelling (something about virgins on a spaceship?) with a lusty guitar and smashed piano chords.—
Shana Naomi Krochmal,
Vulture,
4 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
An unelected, unaccountable private citizen had unilaterally thwarted a military operation in an active war zone while exposing the fact that governments had remarkably little control over crucial decisions affecting their citizens and national security.—
Ian Bremmer,
Foreign Affairs,
13 May 2025
-
MACs serve as an unaccountable middleman between patients and doctors, driving up costs and worsening patient outcomes.—
Steve Forbes,
Forbes.com,
5 May 2025
Adjective
-
The company hit that once unfathomable goal by the third quarter of 2024, and the company’s market capitalization has skyrocketed by another 370% since to $125 billion, amid a frenzy for anything remotely AI-adjacent.—
Matt Durot,
Forbes.com,
19 May 2025
-
The other features unfathomable darkness and is depicted comically in Silverman’s memoir, Bedwetter, and the still-developing Bedwetter: The Musical, with music by the late Adam Schlesinger.—
Stephen Rodrick,
Rolling Stone,
18 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unsayable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unsayable. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.
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