unutterable
Cannot be spoken
Unutterable describes something too extreme or profound to express in words.
Unutterable joy, unutterable grief, unutterable horror—the word emphasizes that language fails before the intensity of the experience.
It can also mean too sacred or too offensive to speak aloud: the unutterable name of God, unutterable obscenities.
The word is literary and somewhat old-fashioned.
Lacking spoken content
- speechlessUnable to talk
- beyond wordsExceeding language's capacity
- indescribableCannot be put into words
- namelessWithout any designation
indefinable · incommunicable · unvoiced · unexpressed · silent · mute · tongue-tied · inarticulate
Cultural or social prohibition
- unspeakableBeyond verbal expression
- unmentionableToo shameful to discuss
- prohibitedOfficially not permitted
- bannedOfficially disallowed
proscribed · verboten · censored · suppressed · silenced · hushed · off-limits · sacrilegious
Beyond verbal expression
- numinousSpiritually awesome, beyond ordinary
- sublimeAwe-inspiring greatness
- mysticalOf hidden spiritual significance
- divineOf or from gods
sacred · holy · transcendent · spiritual · ethereal · heavenly · beatific · rapturous
Intensely meaningful or insightful
- intenseExtreme in degree
- overwhelmingIntensely excessive in force
- crushingOverwhelming in intensity
- devastatingCausing severe damage
unbearable · overpowering · staggering · immense · deep · extreme · raw · visceral
wordless
Lacking spoken content
- speechlessUnable to talk
- beyond wordsExceeding language's capacity
- indescribableCannot be put into words
nameless · indefinable · incommunicable · unvoiced · unexpressed · silent · mute · tongue-tied · inarticulate · dumbstruck
taboo
Cultural or social prohibition
- unspeakableBeyond verbal expression
- unmentionableToo shameful to discuss
- prohibitedOfficially not permitted
banned · proscribed · verboten · censored · suppressed · silenced · hushed · off-limits · sacrilegious · blasphemous
ineffable
Beyond verbal expression
- numinousSpiritually awesome, beyond ordinary
- sublimeAwe-inspiring greatness
- mysticalOf hidden spiritual significance
divine · sacred · holy · transcendent · spiritual · ethereal · heavenly · beatific · rapturous · ecstatic
profound
Intensely meaningful or insightful
- intenseExtreme in degree
- overwhelmingIntensely excessive in force
- crushingOverwhelming in intensity
devastating · unbearable · overpowering · staggering · immense · deep · extreme · raw · visceral · gut-wrenching
- Beyond wordsineffable, inexpressible, indescribable, incommunicable, speechless
- apophatic theologynegative theology, via negativa, unsaying, unknowing, negation
- sublimesublimity, grandeur, vastness, awe, majesty
unutterableexpressible
Able to be conveyed
utterable · speakable · articulable · communicable · sayable
unutterableconceivable
Able to be imagined
thinkable · imaginable · definable · comprehensible · fathomable