incomprehensible

See also: incompréhensible

English

Etymology

From Middle French incomprehensible, from Latin incomprehensibilis.

Pronunciation

• (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) IPA^(key): /ˌɪnkɑmpɹəˈhɛnsɪbəl/
• (deprecated use of |lang= parameter)

  Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

incomprehensible (comparative more incomprehensible, superlative most incomprehensible)

1. impossible or very difficult to understand.
   • Greg Bear, Heads, 1990

     He shook his head. 'It's not only undefined, it's incomprehensible. Even the QL is befuddled by it and can't give me straight answers.'

   • Mark Twain, Letters From The Earth, (posthumous) 1962

     But this inference, which is supported by the opening of Book I, renders incomprehensible the note "and I have finished writing this," which is included within the dream.

Synonyms

• fathomless, unfathomable, unintelligible; See also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

Antonyms

• comprehensible, understandable; See also Thesaurus:comprehensible

Related terms

• incomprehension

Translations

impossible or very difficult to understand

• Albanian: pakuptueshëm (sq)
• Armenian: անհասկանալի (hy) (anhaskanali)
• Belarusian: незразуме́лы (njezrazumjély)
• Bulgarian: неразбираем (bg) (nerazbiraem), непонятен (bg) (neponjaten)
• Catalan: incomprensible
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 難以理解的 / 难以理解的 (zh), 难以理解的 (zh) (nányǐ lǐjiě de), 費解的 / 费解的 (zh), 费解的 (zh) (fèijiě de)

• Czech: nesrozumitelný
• Danish: uforståelig, ubegribelig
• Dutch: onbegrijpelijk (nl)
• Finnish: käsittämätön (fi)
• French: incompréhensible (fr) m or f
• German: unverständlich (de), unbegreiflich (de), unfassbar (de)
• Greek: ακατανόητος (el) (akatanóitos), ασύλληπτος (el) (asýlliptos)
• Hungarian: érthetetlen (hu), megfoghatatlan (hu), felfoghatatlan (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: incomprensibile (it)
• Japanese: 不可解な (fukakai na), 理解できない (ja) (rikai dekinai)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ubegripelig (no)

• Polish: niezrozumiały (pl)
• Portuguese: incompreensível (pt)
• Russian: непоня́тный (ru) (neponjátnyj), непостижи́мый (ru) (nepostižímyj), невразуми́тельный (ru) (nevrazumítelʹnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: do-thuigsinneach
• Spanish: incomprensible (es)
• Swedish: obegriplig (sv)
• Tagalog: di-matingkala
• Turkish: anlaşılmaz (tr)
• Ukrainian: незрозумі́лий (nezrozumílyj)

Further reading

• “incomprehensible”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “incomprehensible”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

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Middle French

Etymology

First known attestation 1314, borrowed from Latin incomprehensibilis.

Adjective

incomprehensible m or f (plural incomprehensibles)

1. incomprehensible