inviolable

From Middle French inviolable, from Latin inviolābilis (“untouchable”), from violō (“violate”).

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈvaɪələbl̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧vi‧o‧la‧ble

inviolable (comparative more inviolable, superlative most inviolable)

1. Not violable; not to be infringed.

   Synonyms: unbreakable, unbreachable

   Antonyms: (incapable of being complied) incompliable, (capable of being violated) violable, (capable of being violated) breakable

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. , London: ">…] , and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 842–844:

     But come, for thou, be ſure, ſhalt give account / To him who ſent us, whoſe charge is to keep / This place inviolable, and therefore theſe from harm.

   • a. 1682, Sir Thomas Browne, “Christian Morals”, in Henry Gardiner, editor, Religio Medici, together with a Letter to a Friend on the Death of His Intimate Friend and Christian Morals, London: W. Pickering, published 1845, part III, page 337:

     But honeſt men’s words are Stygian oaths, and promiſes inviolable.

   • 1828, Thomas Castaly, “The Recorder”, in Fanny with Other Poems, page 87:

     One more request, and I am lost, / If you its earnest prayer deny ; / It is, that you preserve the most / Inviolable secrecy / As to my plan.

   • 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed‎:

     "Now, Mr. Jones, having obtained your promise of inviolable secrecy, I come down to the essential point."

2. Not susceptible to violence, or of being profaned, corrupted, or dishonoured.

   Synonyms: holy, sacred, sacrosanct

   Antonym: violable

3. Incapable of being injured or invaded; indestructible.

   Synonyms: invincible, unassailable

   Antonym: invadable

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

From Latin inviolābilis (“untouchable”).

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.vjɔ.labl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: inviolables

inviolable (plural inviolables)

1. inviolable

• “inviolable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

From Latin inviolābilis (“untouchable”).

• IPA^(key): /imbjoˈlable/
• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: in‧vio‧la‧ble

inviolable m or f (masculine and feminine plural inviolables)

1. inviolable

• “inviolable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy , 2024 December 10