unendable

B

Brainiac

Senior Member
Srpski - Kosovo
Hello!

I couldn't find word "unendable" here in your dictionary. If you google it, you can find it in many articles. I can guess the meaning of it, but I am not quite sure. Can you help me please?
I wonder if I could use it in formal letters.
What do you think?
Thank you in advance.
 
    • I wouldn't use it in formal letters.

    But as for the meaning, I guess it means "something that does not end" or "something that cannot be ended". Both means "something that goes on forever". Probably in a negative sense.
     
    I'd go for never-ending instead because my dictionary does not include unendable either. I would certainly understand it, it even looks like a logical expression, but it would take a native speaker to say whether it is/could be idiomatic or not.
    M
     
    Oh, you're so fast! :) Thanks.
    The word doesn't exist in any online dictionaries - or I couldn't google it. I found it in some articles about psychology, so I thought it was a recently-coined word...

    Thank you.
    (In this forum powered by vBulletin, there's no "thanks" button to press.... :) )
     
    Not a recognised English word in my opinion.
    Other good alternatives: endless, ceaseless, unceasing, incessant.
     
    Myridon said:
    "Unendable" has about 8,370 Google hits. In terms of Google hits, this is small number. "Unending" has 9,590,000 Google hits. That is many hits.
    Click to expand...

    Well, here's my thought:

    "Unending" means "something that does not end".
    "-able" usually means something that "one cannot stop, or end".

    Unending things are those that can last forever; this does not say anything about them to be able to be terminated by someone/something.
    Unendable things are those that do not end even with someone trying to end them.

    And, no, it is not something that is officially recognized - someone thought of it, and some other people followed. One day we may see it in the Webster. :)
     
    morzh said:
    Well, here's my thought:
    Click to expand...
    I wasn't even suggesting "unending" as a replacement. It was merely a "nearby" example to show what "many articles" is really like.

    You're right "unendable" can be produced using the normal rules for producing English words from stems, prefixes, and suffixes. It is almost inevitable that someone would use it somewhere on the Internet. There are probably a few situations in which it would even be the most appropriate word but I can't think of an example off the top of my head of when I would want to talk about the unendableness ;) of something.
     
    Oh, thank you guys!
    Sorry for "many" articles :) I now know that 8,370 Google hits (I got 8400, 0.09 sec) is a "small" number. :)

    Well, I found it this time in     The Oxford History of Western Music (Google books). You can't underrate "Oxford", right? ;)
    And the sentence from this book may describe, frankly, any debate :)))

    "He (Wagner)     has become a figure of furious and apparently unendable debate."

    But I like to use this "rare" words....:)

    (I hope my smiles are not annoying!)

    See you!
     
    Welcome, Brainiac. :)

    Thank you for giving us the sentence. It is a context in a person might prefer the coinage 'unendable' to the more usual words that mean approximately the same thing.

    A note for the future: You should always provide a sentence with every question. It helps us give more accurate answers ~ and our rules require it. ;)
    (See Rule 3.)
     
    Cagey, I've read them all!
    Understood.
    Thanks.

    And Cagey, I forgot, should I post in Dictionary Addition section, since you may include this word in your dictionary one day?
    ("Suggest new terms to add to the English dictionary. These should not yet be in most dictionaries")

    I'm new here, I'm still learning...
     
    Last edited:
    sdgraham said:
    The passion to use 'unendable" I find to be ununderstandable.
    Click to expand...
    Really? :) I wanted to say - I like "rare" things. But I have a lot of passion too. ;)

    You forgot that we are English learners, I still don't "feel" English words like you do. For me it was: "Oh, another new word!" :)
     
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