unspeakability
Quality defying expression
Unspeakability is the quality of being too terrible, taboo, or profound to put into words.
The term appears in discussions of trauma, atrocity, or experiences that resist articulation: the unspeakability of genocide, the unspeakability of her grief.
It can also describe something so offensive or obscene that mentioning it violates social norms.
Beyond verbal expression
- inexpressibleCannot be put into words
- unutterableImpossible to express verbally
- wordlessnessLacking verbal expression
- silenceTotal lack of sound
horror · atrocity · testimony · witness · Holocaust · genocide · survivor · memory
Being beyond articulation
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- sublimeAwe-inspiring greatness
- mysticalOf hidden spiritual significance
- numinousSpiritually awesome, beyond ordinary
Wittgenstein · limits · language · inexpressibility · paradox · unknowable · metaphysical · phenomenology
Of or from gods
- holyDedicated to the divine
- mysticismPursuit of divine union
- GodSupreme spiritual authority
- prayerAddress to deity
meditation · enlightenment · revelation · spiritual · ecstasy · awe · transcendent · religious
Not allowed
- censorshipOfficial content restriction
- prohibitionAuthoritative legal ban
- suppressionForcible prevention or concealment
- unmentionableToo shameful to discuss
obscenity · profanity · blasphemy · impropriety · scandal · secret · shame · stigma
ineffable
Beyond verbal expression
- inexpressibleCannot be put into words
- unutterableImpossible to express verbally
- wordlessnessLacking verbal expression
silence · horror · atrocity · testimony · witness · Holocaust · genocide · survivor · memory · grief
ineffability
Being beyond articulation
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- sublimeAwe-inspiring greatness
- mysticalOf hidden spiritual significance
numinous · Wittgenstein · limits · language · inexpressibility · paradox · unknowable · metaphysical · phenomenology · consciousness
divine
Of or from gods
prayer · meditation · enlightenment · revelation · spiritual · ecstasy · awe · transcendent · religious · worship
forbidden
Not allowed
- censorshipOfficial content restriction
- prohibitionAuthoritative legal ban
- suppressionForcible prevention or concealment
unmentionable · obscenity · profanity · blasphemy · impropriety · scandal · secret · shame · stigma · repression
unspeakabilityopenness
Quality of being accessible
frankness · public discourse · candor · open dialogue · free expression
unspeakabilitydefinability
Capacity to be precisely characterized
comprehensibility · intelligibility · explicability · mundanity · ordinariness
speak, speaker, speakers, speaking, speaks, spoken, speakable, unspeakable, unspeakably