ungraspable
adjective
un·grasp·able
ˌən-ˈgra-spə-bəl 
: not able to be grasped : not graspable
especially
: not easily understood or imagined
That tree had witnessed the assaults of men in mail—how remote such a time seems, and how ungraspable is the fact that real men ever did fight in real armor! … —
Mark Twain
Mark Twain … students … sometimes recoil in stupefaction and dismay at their ungraspable complexity. —William Plowden
William Plowden Synonyms
Examples of ungraspable in a Sentence
advanced scientific theories of ungraspable complexity for the layperson
Recent Examples on the Web
One gazes into the geographical expanse of this place to try to grasp the ungraspable scale of things.
—Andrew Cockburn, Harper’s Magazine , 5 Jan. 2023
It’s a megagenre, something the poet-philosopher Timothy Morton might call a hyperobject, ungraspable in its ubiquity and scale.
—Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 13 Dec. 2022
The scope of something inexpressible, a mammoth, ungraspable intimation, had overtaken him.
—Greg Jackson, The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2021
The ecological relationships that Darwin brings to our attention tell us of a world of bonds much more complex and ungraspable than had ever previously been supposed.
—Longreads, 23 Mar. 2021
The Internet of Things is an ungraspable future, particularly when the fact of a future for Earth at all sometimes sounds implausible.
—Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 14 May 2020
The river itself was a standard-issue metaphor of time’s ungraspable flux and constancy.
—Wells Tower, Outside Online, 11 July 2018
The new volume, the first in English to bring together all seven of Machado’s story collections, illustrates both the refined pleasures and the somewhat ungraspable nature of his art.
—Sam Sacks, WSJ, 28 June 2018
The cascade of flickering, sometimes unreadable images is so unremitting, despite long stretches of an utterly blank screen, as to be nearly ungraspable.
—New York Times, 24 May 2018
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Andrew Cockburn, Harper’s Magazine , 5 Jan. 2023
It’s a megagenre, something the poet-philosopher Timothy Morton might call a hyperobject, ungraspable in its ubiquity and scale.
—Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 13 Dec. 2022
The scope of something inexpressible, a mammoth, ungraspable intimation, had overtaken him.
—Greg Jackson, The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2021
The ecological relationships that Darwin brings to our attention tell us of a world of bonds much more complex and ungraspable than had ever previously been supposed.
—Longreads, 23 Mar. 2021
The Internet of Things is an ungraspable future, particularly when the fact of a future for Earth at all sometimes sounds implausible.
—Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 14 May 2020
The river itself was a standard-issue metaphor of time’s ungraspable flux and constancy.
—Wells Tower, Outside Online, 11 July 2018
The new volume, the first in English to bring together all seven of Machado’s story collections, illustrates both the refined pleasures and the somewhat ungraspable nature of his art.
—Sam Sacks, WSJ, 28 June 2018
The cascade of flickering, sometimes unreadable images is so unremitting, despite long stretches of an utterly blank screen, as to be nearly ungraspable.
—New York Times, 24 May 2018
Dictionary Entries Near ungraspable
Cite this Entry
“Ungraspable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ungraspable. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share