indescribability

English

Noun

indescribability (countable and uncountable, plural indescribabilities)

1. (uncountable) The state or characteristic of being indescribable.
   • 1992, H. M. Vroom, “Can Religious Experience Be Shared?”, in J. D. Gort et al., editors, On Sharing Religious Experience, Eerdmans Publishing, →ISBN, page 7:

     This emphasis on the indescribability of God in intense religious experience is consistently found in the more mystical religious traditions.

2. (countable) Something which cannot be described.
   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. 2”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, (please specify |book=I or IV, or the page):

     The clothed embodied justice that sits in Westminster Hall, with penalties, parchments, tipstaves, is very visible. But the unembodied justice, whereof that other is either an emblem, or else is a fearful indescribability, is not so visible!

Synonyms

• indescribableness
• undescribableness

Antonyms

• describability
• describableness

Translations

the state or characteristic of being indescribable

• Russian: неопису́емость (ru) m (neopisújemostʹ)