incomprehensible

From Middle French incomprehensible, from Latin incomprehensibilis. Equivalent to in- +‎ comprehensible.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɪnkɑmpɹəˈhɛnsɪbəl/

• Audio (US):

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incomprehensible (comparative more incomprehensible, superlative most incomprehensible)

1. Impossible or very difficult to understand.
   • 1904-09, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, published 1962

     But this inference, which is supported by the opening of Book I, renders incomprehensible the note "and I have finished writing this," which is included within the dream.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 196:

     In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent.

   • 1990, Greg Bear, Heads:

     He shook his head. 'It's not only undefined, it's incomprehensible. Even the QL is befuddled by it and can't give me straight answers.'

   • 2024 November 9, Nick Paton Walsh, “Trump’s second term could bring chaos around the world. Will it work?”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Trump’s grotesque and incomprehensible fondness for Putin makes the details of any deal highly dangerous for Europe and the NATO alliance, founded to confront Russia.

2. (theology or literary) Which cannot be contained; boundless, infinite.
   • 1969, “The Divine Liturgy of John Chrysostom: Liturgy of Offering”, in Joseph Raya, transl., edited by José de Vinck, Byzantine Daily Worship‎^[2], Alleluia Press, page 282:

     Prayer to God the Father: It is fitting and right to sing to You, to bless You, to praise You, to give thanks to You, to worship You in every place of your dominion: for You are God, beyond description, beyond understanding, invisible, incomprehensible, always existing, always the same; You and your only-begotten Son and your Holy Spirit

• fathomless, unfathomable, unintelligible; See also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

• comprehensible, understandable; See also Thesaurus:comprehensible

• incomprehension

incomprehensible (plural incomprehensibles)

1. Anything that is beyond understanding.

• “incomprehensible”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “incomprehensible”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

First known attestation 1314, borrowed from Latin incomprehensibilis.^[1]

incomprehensible m or f (plural incomprehensibles)

1. incomprehensible

• → English: incomprehensible