imponderable

[ im-pon-der-uh-buhl ]
See synonyms for imponderable on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. not ponderable; that cannot be precisely determined, measured, or evaluated.

noun
  1. an imponderable thing, force, agency, etc.

Origin of imponderable

1
From the Medieval Latin word imponderābilis, dating back to 1785–95. See im-2, ponderable

Other words from imponderable

  • im·pon·der·a·bil·i·ty, im·pon·der·a·ble·ness, noun
  • im·pon·der·a·bly, adverb

Words Nearby imponderable

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use imponderable in a sentence

  • Descartes suggested a nearly imponderable solution, in which motion is just a shifting of the relative positions of objects, and the invisible object that we call space, along their shared surfaces.

  • What Warhol gives us is magnificently imponderable, as normal things (such as urinals) are in the world.

    Warhol's Self-Portrait as a Toilet | Blake Gopnik | September 19, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • There were, Caro said, regions of ether too subtle to sustain even so imponderable a poet as Mr. Prothero.

    The Creators | May Sinclair
  • Every letter which came from the absent sister did inclose some imponderable unmounted photograph, with comments.

    Girls and Women | Harriet E. Paine (AKA E. Chester}
  • We are in the present day upon the trace of a great many important facts relating to the imponderable agencies employed in nature.

  • Is or is not that which is called magnetic effluvia a something, a stuff or a substance, invisible and imponderable though it be?

    Reincarnation | Th. Pascal
  • It had simply affected his imagination, which was a consequence of the imponderable sort.

    Confidence | Henry James

British Dictionary definitions for imponderable

imponderable

/ (ɪmˈpɒndərəbəl, -drəbəl) /


adjective
  1. unable to be weighed or assessed

noun
  1. something difficult or impossible to assess

Derived forms of imponderable

  • imponderability or imponderableness, noun
  • imponderably, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012