Word of the Day Archive
Monday May 21, 2007
insuperable \in-SOO-pur-uh-bul\ , adjective:
Incapable of being passed over, surmounted, or overcome; insurmountable; as, "insuperable difficulties."
They have overcome almost insuperable odds that the poor facilities and elements have brought about.
-- Raimund E. Goerler (Editor), To the Pole: The Diary and Notebook of Richard E. Byrd, 1925-1927
Once the Soviet Union acquired the bomb, in 1949, proposals for nuclear disarmament were rejected on grounds that the character of the Soviet regime posed an insuperable obstacle.
-- Jonathan Schell, The Gift of Time
Insuperable comes from Latin insuperabilis, from in-, "not" + superare, "to go above or over, to surmount," from super, "above, over."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for insuperable
