Unimaginable

How to spell unimaginable

12 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce unimaginable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unimaginable mean?

1. adjectiveSo great, strange, or extreme that it cannot be pictured or conceived in the mind.

Unimaginable in a sentence

• The cost of rebuilding after the flood was almost unimaginable.

• Living without the internet now seems unimaginable to most office workers.

Where does unimaginable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on the verb 'imagine', which English borrowed in the 1300s through Old French from the Latin imaginari, meaning 'to picture to oneself' or 'to form a mental image'. That Latin verb came from imago, a noun meaning 'image', 'likeness', or 'copy', the same root that gives us 'image' and 'imagery'. The adjective 'imaginable', meaning 'able to be imagined', was formed with the Latin-derived suffix -able, and by the 1600s the negative prefix un- was attached to produce 'unimaginable' for things too extreme or strange to be pictured in the mind. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the unstressed 'imagin' part is easy to garble, and writers must remember it takes -able, not -ible, because it descends from a fully formed English word that keeps its silent final 'e' only until the suffix replaces it.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• imagin- (root of imagine, from Latin imago: image, likeness)
• -able (capable of being)