inscrutable

Borrowed into late Middle English from Late Latin īnscrūtābilis, from in- (“not”) + scrūtō (“to examine”), corresponding to in- +‎ scrutable

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪnˈskɹuːtəbl̩/

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Hyphenation: in‧scrut‧able

inscrutable (comparative more inscrutable, superlative most inscrutable)

1. Difficult or impossible to comprehend, fathom, or interpret.

   Synonyms: ineffable; see also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

   His inscrutable theories would years later become the foundation of a whole new science.

   • 1852 July, Herman Melville, “Book XXIV. Lucy at the Apostles’.”, in Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, section IV, page 445:

     The pale, inscrutable determinateness, and flinchless intrepidity of Pierre, now began to domineer upon them; for any social unusualness or greatness is sometimes most impressive in the retrospect.

   • 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 211, column 1:

     It was unconscious, this smile was, though just after he had said something it got intensified for an instant. It came at the end of his speeches like a seal applied on the words to make the meaning of the commonest phrase appear absolutely inscrutable.

   • 2007 October 11, Robert Carlock, “Jack Gets in the Game”, in 30 Rock, season 2, episode 2, spoken by Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan):

     She called my vanity license plate inscrutable! 'ICU81MI'? Hilarious!

   • 2023 November 17, Michael Snyder, “A Guide to Guadalajara, Mexico’s City of Makers”, in The New York Times Style Magazine‎^[1], archived from the original on 17 November 2023:

     The writer Juan Rulfo, whose 1955 novel, “Pedro Páramo,” still stands as the central monument of modern Mexican literature, grew up in Jalisco and vividly depicted its arid, sun-blasted landscapes in his writing, while the architect Luis Barragán, who moved from Guadalajara to Mexico City in the 1930s, carried with him an appreciation for his home state’s cloisters, haciendas and humble country buildings, which he translated in his own work as austere, inscrutable volumes of stucco.

• inscrutability
• inscrutableness
• inscrutably

• scrutiny

• inexplorable

inscrutable (plural inscrutables)

1. One who or that which is inscrutable; a person, etc. that cannot be comprehended.

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Inscrutable”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume V (H–K), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 329.