INDEFINABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does indefinable mean? 

• INDEFINABLE (adjective)
  The adjective INDEFINABLE has 2 senses:

1. not capable of being precisely or readily described; not easily put into words

2. defying expression or description

  Familiarity information: INDEFINABLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INDEFINABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not capable of being precisely or readily described; not easily put into words

Synonyms:

indefinable; undefinable

Context example:

an abstract concept that seems indefinable

Similar:

undefined; vague (not precisely limited, determined, or distinguished)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Defying expression or description

Synonyms:

indefinable; indescribable; ineffable; unspeakable; untellable; unutterable

Context example:

a thing of untellable splendor

Similar:

inexpressible; unexpressible (defying expression)

 Context examples 

It was the quality of it, the repose, and the musical modulation—the soft, rich, indefinable product of culture and a gentle soul.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Hers was an extreme lithesomeness, and she moved with a certain indefinable airiness, approaching one as down might float or as a bird on noiseless wings.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“And whose appearance,” interposed his sister, directing general attention to me in my indefinable costume, “is perfectly scandalous and disgraceful.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Her sensations were indefinable, and so were they a few minutes afterwards upon hearing Henry Crawford, who had a chair between herself and Tom, ask the latter in an undervoice whether there were any plans for resuming the play after the present happy interruption (with a courteous glance at Sir Thomas), because, in that case, he should make a point of returning to Mansfield at any time required by the party: he was going away immediately, being to meet his uncle at Bath without delay; but if there were any prospect of a renewal of Lovers' Vows, he should hold himself positively engaged, he should break through every other claim, he should absolutely condition with his uncle for attending them whenever he might be wanted.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She met him at the door herself, and her woman's eyes took in immediately the creased trousers and the certain slight but indefinable change in him for the better.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

D’ye know, Hump, he said, with a slow seriousness which had in it an indefinable strain of sadness, that this is the first time I have heard the word ‘ethics’ in the mouth of a man. You and I are the only men on this ship who know its meaning.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Both became overshadowed by a new and indefinable horror; and when I awoke—or rather when I shook off the lethargy that bound me in my chair—my whole frame thrilled with objectless and unintelligible fear.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There is something strange to me, even now, in the reflection that he never saw me; and something stranger yet in the shadowy remembrance that I have of my first childish associations with his white grave-stone in the churchyard, and of the indefinable compassion I used to feel for it lying out alone there in the dark night, when our little parlour was warm and bright with fire and candle, and the doors of our house were—almost cruelly, it seemed to me sometimes—bolted and locked against it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The shock of such an event happening so suddenly, and happening to one with whom I had been in any respect at variance—the appalling vacancy in the room he had occupied so lately, where his chair and table seemed to wait for him, and his handwriting of yesterday was like a ghost—the indefinable impossibility of separating him from the place, and feeling, when the door opened, as if he might come in—the lazy hush and rest there was in the office, and the insatiable relish with which our people talked about it, and other people came in and out all day, and gorged themselves with the subject—this is easily intelligible to anyone.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A pause followed this apparently pointless remark. Daisy looked at Tom frowning and an indefinable expression, at once definitely unfamiliar and vaguely recognizable, as if I had only heard it described in words, passed over Gatsby's face.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)