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Irreversible vs Irrevocable - What's the difference?

irreversible | irrevocable |

As adjectives the difference between irreversible and irrevocable

is that irreversible is incapable of being reversed or turned about or back; incapable of being made to run backward while irrevocable is unable to be retracted or reversed; final.

irreversible

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Incapable of being reversed or turned about or back; incapable of being made to run backward.
  • Incapable of being reversed, recalled, repealed, or annulled.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-04-21, volume=411, issue=8884, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Subtle effects , passage=Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese
  • (label) Incapable of being reversed to the original state without consumption of free energy and increase of entropy.

    • irrevocable

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Unable to be retracted or reversed; final.
  • * , As You Like It act 1, sc. 3:
    • Firm and irrevocable is my doom
    Which I have pass'd upon her; she is banish'd.
  • * 1848 , , Dombey and Son , ch. 61:
    • On each face, wonder and fear were painted vividly; each so still and silent, looking at the other over the black gulf of the irrevocable past.
  • * 2005 April 28, , " Cycling: Cipo retires. Definitely. Absolutely. Yes. Probably," New York Times (retrieved 27 April 2014):
    • Once again, Mario Cipollini has announced his definite, absolute, unswerving and irrevocable decision to retire, and this time he means it. Probably.