indelible

What it means

1. Having the quality of being difficult to delete, remove, wash away, blot out, or efface.

   Written with indelible pen.

   3 more examples

   This ink spot on the contract is indelible.

   This stain on my shirt is indelible.

   The brow was smooth and fair; no deep thought, born of deep feeling, had grown there—those indelible lines which stamp even youth with age.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 235

   Synonyms: unerasable · Antonyms: delible, uninsertable

2. figurativelyIncapable of being canceled, lost, or forgotten.

   That horrible story just might make an indelible impression on the memory.

   2 more examples

   During our investigation it became clear that for three decades many other women had suffered at the hands of our abuser, but they had refused to testify against him because of the indelible stigma it would bring.

   2014 August 29, Ruzwana Bashir, “The untold story of how a culture of shame perpetuates abuse. I know, I was a victim”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2018

   An indelible image from the Great Depression features a well-dressed family seated with their dog in a comfy car, smiling down from an oversize billboard on weary souls standing in line at a relief agency.

   2020 April 16, Patricia Cohen, “Straggling in a Good Economy, and Now Struggling in a Crisis”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 24 Jul 2020

   Synonyms: unerasable, unforgettable

3. Incapable of being annulled.

   November 7, 1678, Thomas Sprat, a sermon preached at the Anniversary Meeting of the Sons of Clergymen in the Church of St Mary-le-Bow They are […] endued with indelible power from above.

In a sentence

This ink spot on the contract is indelible.

Where it comes from

1. Latinindēlēbilis“indestructible”
2. Englishindelible

From Latin indēlēbilis (“indestructible”). By surface analysis, in- + delible.