different between unspeakable vs unutterable

English

Etymology

From Middle English unspekable, equivalent to un- +? speakable.

Pronunciation

Adjective

unspeakable (comparative more unspeakable, superlative most unspeakable)

1. Incapable of being spoken or uttered

   Synonyms: unutterable, ineffable, inexpressible

   • 1855-1882, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, book xv,

     The endless pride and outstretching of man, unspeakable joys and sorrows.

2. Unfit or not permitted to be spoken or described.
   • 1916, James Joyce, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, ch. 3,

     The miser will remember his hoard of gold, the robber his ill-gotten wealth, the angry and revengeful and merciless murderers their deeds of blood and violence in which they revelled, the impure and adulterous the unspeakable and filthy pleasures in which they delighted.

3. Extremely bad or objectionable.

   an unspeakable fool

   an unspeakable play

   • 1926, H.P. Lovecraft, The Outsider,

     Yet to my horror I saw in its eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines a leering, abhorrent travesty on the human shape; and in its mouldy, disintegrating apparel an unspeakable quality that chilled me even more.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:indescribable

Derived terms

• unspeakably
• unspeakableness

Translations

References

• unspeakable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “unspeakable” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "unspeakable" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002)
• "unspeakable" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• “unspeakable”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• "unspeakable" at Rhymezone (Datamuse, 2006).
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)

Scots

Etymology

un- +? speak +? -able

Adjective

unspeakable (comparative mair unspeakable, superlative maist unspeakable)

1. unspeakable

English

Etymology

From un- +? utterable.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?n??t(?)??bl?/, /?n??t(?)??b?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??n??t??bl?/, /??n??t??b?l/, [??n????.??bl?]

Adjective

unutterable (comparative more unutterable, superlative most unutterable)

1. Not utterable; incapable of being spoken or voiced
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 11, lines 3-8,^[1]

     Prevenient grace descending had removed

     The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh

     Regenerate grow instead; that sighs now breathed

     Unutterable; which the Spirit of prayer

     Inspired, and winged for Heaven with speedier flight

     Than loudest oratory: […]

   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Chapter 20,^[2]

     […] he was caressed by all the people in the neighbourhood, who, while they admired his accomplishments, could not help pitying his infatuated mother, for being deprived of that unutterable delight which any other parent would have enjoyed in the contemplation of such an amiable son.

   • 1818, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Chapter 12,^[3]

     […] in this manner, Anne walking by her side, and Charles attending to his wife, they set forward, treading back with feelings unutterable, the ground, which so lately, so very lately, and so light of heart, they had passed along.

   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 17,^[4]

     How often have I seen him, intent upon a match at marbles or pegtop, looking on with a face of unutterable interest, and hardly breathing at the critical times!

   • 1964, Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel lecture, Oslo, Norway, 11 December, 1964, cited in Suzy Platt (ed.), Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations Requested from the Congressional Research Service, Washington D.C.: Library of Congress, 1989,^[5]

     Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.

   Synonyms: inexpressible, ineffable, unspeakable; see also Thesaurus:indescribable

2. Extremely bad or objectionable; unspeakable.

Derived terms

• unutterableness
• unutterably

Translations

Anagrams

• enturbulate