incurable

English

Etymology

From Old French incurable, from Late Latin incurabilis.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌɪnˈkjʊəɹəbl/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌɪnˈkjʊɹəbl/
  • Audio:(file)

Adjective

incurable (not comparable)

  1. Of an illness, condition, etc, that is unable to be cured; healless.
    • 1854, James Stephen, On Desultory and Systematic Reading:
      They were labouring under a profound, and, as it might have seemed, an almost incurable ignorance.
  2. (figuratively) Irremediable, incorrigible.
    an incurable romantic

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Noun

incurable (plural incurables)

  1. One who cannot be cured.
    • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom Rickshaw”, in The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales, Allahabad: A.H. Wheeler and Co., page 7:
      Heatherlegh, the Doctor, kept, in addition to his regular practice, a hospital on his private account — an arrangement of loose-boxes for Incurables, his friends called it — but it was really a sort of fitting-up shed for craft that had been damaged by stress of weather.

Anagrams

Catalan

Etymology

From Late Latin incurābilis. First attested in 1460.[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (Central, Balearic) [iŋ.kuˈɾab.blə]
  • IPA(key): (Valencia) [iŋ.kuˈɾa.ble]
  • Hyphenation: in‧cu‧ra‧ble

Adjective

incurable m or f (masculine and feminine plural incurables)

  1. incurable
    Synonym: inguarible
    Antonyms: curable, guarible
  • incurabilitat

References

  1. ^ incurable”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.

Further reading

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin incūrābilis. By surface analysis, in- +‎ curable.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛ̃.ky.ʁabl/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio (Switzerland):(file)

Adjective

incurable (plural incurables)

  1. incurable
    Synonym: inguérissable
    Antonyms: curable, guérissable, soignable
    Near-synonym: inopérable

Derived terms

Further reading

Middle French

Adjective

incurable m or f (plural incurables)

  1. incurable

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin incūrābilis.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /inkuˈɾable/ [ĩŋ.kuˈɾa.β̞le]
  • Rhymes: -able
  • Syllabification: in‧cu‧ra‧ble

Adjective

incurable m or f (masculine and feminine plural incurables)

  1. incurable
    Antonym: curable

Derived terms

  • incurabilidad

Further reading