unspellable

U1N1S1P3E1L1L1A1B3L1E1

adjective

Difficult or impossible to spell.

OriginEnglish spellable ← Middle English un- ← Old English un- →
Scrabble 15
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Meanings

adjectiveunspellable (not comparable)
  1. not comparableDifficult or impossible to spell.

    His masters, the Houyhnhnms of the unspellable and unsayable name, were more than performing horses or uncultured squires.

    1928, Shaun Leslie, The Skull of Swift: An Extempore Exhumation
    1 more example

    Their children, with unpronounceable, unspellable names, came to school in tattered clothes, the boys in drab vests and the girls in more colorful ones.

    1992, Hayden Carruth, Suicides and Jazzers

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*né
  2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
  3. Proto-Germanic*un-
  4. Proto-West Germanic*un-
  5. Old Englishun-
  6. Middle Englishun-
  7. Englishun-
  8. Englishspellable
  9. Englishunspellable

From un- + spellable.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

unspellable. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unspellable

MLA

“unspellable.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unspellable. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unspellable,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unspellable.

Source: unspellable on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.