Unforgettable

How to spell unforgettable

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce unforgettable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unforgettable mean?

1. adjectiveSo striking or memorable that it stays in the mind and cannot be forgotten.

Unforgettable in a sentence

• Their honeymoon in Venice was an unforgettable week.

• The chef created an unforgettable tasting menu for the anniversary.

Where does unforgettable come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the native verb 'forget', which descends from the Old English forgietan, a compound of the intensifying prefix for- and gietan, meaning 'to grasp' or 'to get hold of'; so to forget was literally to fail to keep your grip on something in the mind. The verb is closely related to 'get', and the for- prefix here carries the sense of doing something away or amiss, much as it does in 'forgo' and 'forsake'. The negating prefix un- and the suffix -able were added later, with -able coming through Old French from the Latin -abilis, meaning 'capable of'. The full adjective 'unforgettable', meaning impossible to forget, came together in English by the early nineteenth century. The spelling trap lives in the middle: because 'forget' takes a stressed final syllable, the t doubles before -able, giving the easily missed double t in forge-TT-able.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• forget (from Old English forgietan: to lose hold of in the mind)
• -able (capable of being)