Unbreakable

How to spell unbreakable

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce unbreakable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unbreakable mean?

1. adjectiveImpossible to break, shatter, or destroy.

Unbreakable in a sentence

• The manufacturer claimed the phone screen was virtually unbreakable.

• The children were given unbreakable plastic plates for the picnic.

Where does unbreakable come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built entirely from familiar English pieces. The core is 'break', which traces back to the Old English 'brecan', meaning 'to shatter, burst, or destroy', a verb with Germanic roots shared by the Dutch 'breken' and German 'brechen'. To this is added the negative prefix 'un-', also native Old English, meaning simply 'not', and the suffix '-able', which English absorbed from Old French and ultimately from the Latin '-abilis', meaning 'capable of being'. The blend of a Germanic root with a Latin-derived suffix is common in English and produces a word that means 'not capable of being broken'. The spelling trap lies in the join between 'break' and '-able': the silent letters of 'break' are kept intact, so the word reads 'break-able' rather than the phonetic 'brakeable'.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• break (to shatter or come apart)
• -able (capable of being)