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.'

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, 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.
• “incomprehensible”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

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

incomprehensible m or f (plural incomprehensibles)

1. incomprehensible

• → English: incomprehensible