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Ineffable vs Unfathomable - What's the difference?

ineffable | unfathomable |

As adjectives the difference between ineffable and unfathomable

is that ineffable is beyond expression in words; unspeakable while unfathomable is impossible to fathom or understand; incomprehensible.

ineffable

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Beyond expression in words; unspeakable.
  • * 1919 ,
    • Stroeve was trying to express a feeling which he had never known before, and he did not know how to put it into common terms. He was like the mystic seeking to describe the ineffable .
  • * Gay Watson, Stephen Batchelor, Guy Claxton, The Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, science, and our day-to-day lives (2000) p. 100:
    • As Alan Watts (1961) wrote, it involves trying to speak the unspeakable, scrute the inscrutable and eff the ineffable .
  • Forbidden to be uttered; taboo.

    • Antonyms

    * (beyond expression in words) noisy

    Synonyms

    * (beyond expression in words) indescribable, inexpressible, unspeakable * (forbidden to be uttered) taboo, unspeakable, unutterable * See also

    Related terms

    * ineffability * ineffableness * ineffably * counterparts in calculating: ** innumerable ** innumerous ** unnumerable ** incalculable

    unfathomable

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Impossible to fathom or understand; incomprehensible.
    • The sheer numbers they attacked with were unfathomable .
  • * {{quote-news, year=2013, date=April 9, author=Andrei Lankov, title=Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff., work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=Suggestions that those leaders are irrational and their decisions unfathomable are remarkably shallow. North Korea is not a theocracy led by zealots who preach the rewards of the afterlife.}}
  • Difficult to penetrate.

    • Antonyms

    * (l)

    See also

    * (l) * (l) * (l)