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Intolerable vs Unspeakable - What's the difference?

intolerable | unspeakable | Related terms |

Intolerable is a related term of unspeakable.


As adjectives the difference between intolerable and unspeakable

is that intolerable is intolerable while unspeakable is incapable of being spoken or uttered; unutterable; ineffable; inexpressible.

intolerable

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Not tolerable; not capable of being borne or endured; not proper or right to be allowed; insufferable; insupportable; unbearable.
  • Extremely offensive or insulting.
  • * 1971 , William S. Burroughs, The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead , page 4
    • It is an intolerable sound that sets spoons tinkling in saucers and windowpanes vibrating.

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "intolerable" is often applied: cruelty, burden, situation, condition, pain, heat, position, life, state, suffering, evil, risk, insult, hardship, agony, behavior, affront, insolence, stress, consequence, people.

    Derived terms

    * intolerability * intolerableness * intolerably

    References

    * *

    unspeakable

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Incapable of being spoken or uttered; unutterable; ineffable; inexpressible.
  • * 1855-1882 , , book xv,
    • The endless pride and outstretching of man, unspeakable joys and sorrows.
  • Unfit or not permitted to be spoken or described.
  • * 1916 , , A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man , ch. 3,
    • The miser will remember his hoard of gold, the robber his ill-gotten wealth, the angry and revengeful and merciless murderers their deeds of blood and violence in which they revelled, the impure and adulterous the unspeakable and filthy pleasures in which they delighted.
  • Extremely bad or objectionable.
    • an unspeakable fool
    an unspeakable play
  • * 1926 , ,
    • Yet to my horror I saw in its eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines a leering, abhorrent travesty on the human shape; and in its mouldy, disintegrating apparel an unspeakable quality that chilled me even more.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * unspeakably * unspeakableness

    References

    * * * * " unspeakable" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002) * " unspeakable" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007) * * " unspeakable" at Rhymezone (Datamuse, 2006). * Oxford English Dictionary , second edition (1989) ----