Meaning & use

unfathomable

adjective·Advanced

Impossible to understand fully or measure completely, because of its extreme depth or complexity.

See it in a sentence

The scale of the disaster caused unfathomable suffering across the entire region.

To ancient sailors, the ocean's depths seemed utterly unfathomable and terrifying.

A note on using this word

Unfathomable originally described water too deep to measure ('fathom') and now mainly describes ideas, emotions, or scales beyond comprehension.

Words with a similar meaning

incomprehensibleinconceivable

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

understandableclear

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