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INDESCRIBABLE
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Dictionary entry overview: What does indescribable mean?
• INDESCRIBABLE (adjective)
The adjective INDESCRIBABLE has 1 sense:
1. defying expression or description
Familiarity information: INDESCRIBABLE used as an adjective is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
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
But now, though her voice was still sweet, I found in its melody an indescribable sadness.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
But after one glance, she retired, with an indescribable expression, for looking quite lost in the big carriage, sat Amy and one young lady.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The compliment was just returned, coldly and proudly; and, under indescribable irritation of spirits, she was then conveyed to Hartfield.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Holmes examined both it and the indescribable wreck which it had wrought.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“No,” Wolf Larsen answered, with an indescribable air of sadness.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
At last the tapping recommenced, and, to our indescribable joy and gratitude, died slowly away again until it ceased to be heard.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
The cousin who was travelling towards them could hardly have less than visited their agitated spirits—one all happiness, the other all varying and indescribable perturbation.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
This, said the stranger, with a certain condescending roll in his voice, and a certain indescribable air of doing something genteel, which impressed me very much, is Master Copperfield.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The man sat all twisted and huddled in his chair in a way which gave an indescribable impression of deformity; but the face which he turned towards us, though worn and swarthy, must at some time have been remarkable for its beauty.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was some time however before she could unfasten the door, the same difficulty occurring in the management of this inner lock as of the outer; but at length it did open; and not vain, as hitherto, was her search; her quick eyes directly fell on a roll of paper pushed back into the further part of the cavity, apparently for concealment, and her feelings at that moment were indescribable.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
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