Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Impossible to define, describe, or analyze.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not definable; incapable of being defined or exactly described; not susceptible of definition: as, an indefinable boundary; an indefinable word; indefinable sensations.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Incapable of being defined or described; inexplicable.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective That cannot be
precisely defined or put intowords - adjective That defies
description ;indescribable - noun Anything that cannot be defined.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective not capable of being precisely or readily described; not easily put into words
- adjective defying expression or description
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Hers was an extreme lithesomeness, and she moved with a certain indefinable airiness, approaching one as down might float or as a bird on noiseless wings.
Chapter 23 2010
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[1] Exemplary as defined through critical reception, financial success and a certain indefinable presence as part of popular culture.
Virtual Reality and the First Person Shooter Ben Abraham 2008
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[1] Exemplary as defined through critical reception, financial success and a certain indefinable presence as part of popular culture.
Archive 2008-05-01 Ben Abraham 2008
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= “Who cares if the person is right for the job, as long as the person is opposite of what a certain indefinable group of people want.”
Think Progress » Limbaugh: Euphoria Over Alito, A “European” “Married Male” 2005
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Except for his impeccably accented English and a certain indefinable air about his bearing (I always say no one slouches quite as elegantly as an Englishman), an observer might have taken my son for one of the Egyptians among whom he had spent most of his life.
Excerpt: He Shall Thunder In The Sky by Elizabeth Peters 2000
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Hers was an extreme lithesomeness, and she moved with a certain indefinable airiness, approaching one as down might float or as a bird on noiseless wings.
Chapter 23 1904
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The features, look, air, portrait, the expression indefinable except as a light of outcoming spirit, were those of the man he had helped crucify before the
The Prince of India — Volume 01 Lewis Wallace 1866
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I look for style, structure, prose, originality and a certain indefinable quality that makes me curse and say, “Damn, I wish I’d thought of that.”
November 2007 2007
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I look for style, structure, prose, originality and a certain indefinable quality that makes me curse and say, “Damn, I wish I’d thought of that.”
Here Come The Judge… 2007
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He thought of the unknown as the indefinable beyond to an immediate world that might be quite clearly and exactly known.
dailyword commented on the word indefinable
The essence of this passed between Jim and Artie during their celebration of Christmas together in "The Night Of The Storm."
September 28, 2012