unsufferable

U1N1S1U1F4F4E1R1A1B3L1E1
/ʌnˈsʌfəɹəbəl/

adjective

Not able to be suffered, difficult or impossible to endure; insufferable.

Scrabble 20

Meanings

adjectiveunsufferable (comparative more unsufferable, superlative most unsufferable)

comparative more unsufferable · superlative most unsufferable

  1. Not able to be suffered, difficult or impossible to endure; insufferable.

    [T]his Comparison of a Point in Geometry with Unity in Arithmetic is of all the most unsufferable, and derives the worst Consequences upon Mathematical Learning.

    1734, Isaac Barrow, translated by John Kirkby, The Usefulness of Mathematical Learning Explained and Demonstrated: Being Mathematical Lectures Read in the Publick Schools at the University of Cambridge. […], London: […] Stephen Austen, […], →OCLC, page 48
    4 more examples

    The heate of this place is wonderfull; the earth itselfe being almost unsufferable, and which the subterranean fires have made so hollow, by having wasted the matter for so many years, that it sounds like a drum to those who walke upon it […]

    1645 February 15 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 6 February 1645]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC

    [W]hilſt he heſitated there, the criſis of pleaſure overtook him, and the cloſe compreſſure of the vvarm ſurrounding fold, drevv from him the extatic guſh, even before mine vvas ready to meet it, kept up by the pain I had endur'd in the courſe of the engagement, from the unſufferable ſize of his vveapon, tho' it vvas not as yet in above half its length.

    Fanny Hill

    1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 194

    It is possible that these expressions of God's covering Moses with his hand while the glory of God past by, and Moses seeing the back parts of God, may signify no more than this, that in this particular appearance of God he arrayed himself in beams of light of such unsufferable splendor, that it would have destroyed the body of Moses had not God sheltered and protected him […]

    1813, Isaac Watts, The works of the Rev. Isaac Watts D.D. in nine volumes, Volume 6, Edward Baines, page 504

    [W]ould it not be an unsufferable crime in a steward, on the strength of the forementioned false imagination, for to lay out great sums of his lord's money on building himself a noble house, and the mean while to let his lord's house lie in a mean, or even ruinous condition?

    1839, Edward Wells, William Dowsing, The rich man's duty to contribute liberally to the building, rebuilding, repairing, beautifying, and adorning of churches, Oxford: T. Combe, page 139

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectivetoo extreme to bear

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

unsufferable. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unsufferable

MLA

“unsufferable.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unsufferable. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unsufferable,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unsufferable.

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