imponderability
Quality defying measurement
Imponderability is the quality of being impossible to measure, assess, or predict with certainty.
The term appears in discussions of complex situations where key factors resist quantification: The imponderability of human behavior makes social science difficult.
In plural form, imponderables are the unknowable variables themselves: The imponderabilities of war planning.
Not physically present
- ineffableBeyond verbal expression
- transcendentalBeyond ordinary experience
- unknowableImpossible to understand
- unfathomableBeyond comprehension or measurement
incomprehensible · inscrutable · indefinable · abstract · philosophical · ethereal · numinous · sublime
Something unexplained or unknown
- puzzleChallenge testing ingenuity
- riddlePuzzling question to solve
- conundrumPerplexing problem or question
- paradoxSeemingly absurd truth
sphinx · cryptic · arcane · occult · esoteric · veiled · hidden · secret
Impossible to seize
- elusiveHard to find
- slipperyLacking friction, hard-to-grasp
- nebulousUnclear and formless
- vagueUnclear, ill-defined
indistinct · shadowy · fleeting · ephemeral · amorphous · indeterminate · hazy · murky
Having zero mass
- immeasurableBeyond any quantification
- unweighableCannot be massed
- gravitylessHaving no downward pull
- nonphysicalNot of matter
incorporeal · disembodied · immaterial · bodiless · substanceless · aetheric · rarefied · tenuous
intangible
Not physically present
- ineffableBeyond verbal expression
- transcendentalBeyond ordinary experience
- unknowableImpossible to understand
unfathomable · incomprehensible · inscrutable · indefinable · abstract · philosophical · ethereal · numinous · sublime · mystical
mystery
Something unexplained or unknown
- puzzleChallenge testing ingenuity
- riddlePuzzling question to solve
- conundrumPerplexing problem or question
paradox · sphinx · cryptic · arcane · occult · esoteric · veiled · hidden · secret · inexplicable
ungraspable
Impossible to seize
vague · indistinct · shadowy · fleeting · ephemeral · amorphous · indeterminate · hazy · murky · diffuse
massless
Having zero mass
- immeasurableBeyond any quantification
- unweighableCannot be massed
- gravitylessHaving no downward pull
nonphysical · incorporeal · disembodied · immaterial · bodiless · substanceless · aetheric · rarefied · tenuous · impalpable
imponderabilitymeasurability
Capacity to be assessed numerically
quantifiability · calculability · assessability · computability · concreteness
imponderabilitycertainty
Total absence of doubt
certitude · predictability · knowability · determinacy · sureness
imponderabilityconcreteness
Quality of being solid
tangibility · solidity · palpability · definiteness · substantiality
ponder, ponderous, preponderance, ponderable, imponderable, imponderables, preponderate, ponderosity