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I want to tell a colleague of mine I'm doing something that will prevent her from getting "ununderstandable" errors. I have:

...so that you will not get unnecessary, [ununderstandable] errors.

After googling "ununderstandable", I see that there is no such word, but I'm still looking for something that sounds better.

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  • 4
    Surely, that would be "Derstandable"! (j/k)
    – Kaz Dragon
    Commented May 24, 2011 at 17:06
  • 2
    @KazDragon +Your joke was ununderstandable to many here.
    – Kris
    Commented Oct 2, 2012 at 8:27
  • 1
    Overstandable..
    – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com
    Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 20:32

12 Answers 12

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49

How about incomprehensible or unfathomable?

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3
  • 1
    Incomprehensible is the one.
    – Claudiu
    Commented Oct 14, 2010 at 20:17
  • 1
    Incomprehensible is the first one that came to me as well.
    – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
    Commented Oct 15, 2010 at 15:17
  • 2
    Incomprehensible is good, as so is the second, though it should be reserved for stronger cases.
    – Noldorin
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 20:38
17

I prefer unintelligible.

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15

Enigmatic, abstruse, obscure or cabalistic sound good to me.

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  • To be honest, I already sent the mail, but I'll definitely use "obscure" next time. Thanks a lot.
    – Oren A
    Commented Oct 14, 2010 at 15:24
10

...so that you will not get unnecessary cryptic error messages.

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1
  • cryptic is ununderstandable to many.
    – Kris
    Commented Oct 2, 2012 at 8:26
3

My recommendations are:

  • difficult-to-understand or impossible-to-understand
  • opaque
  • obtuse
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1

How about hyphenation: non-understandable?

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1

I googled it, and here it is in the Urban Dictionary.

ununderstandable

un·un·der·stand·a·ble {uhn-uhn-der-stan-duh-buhl}

–adjective

incapable of being understood, failing to be understood correctly.

My Commentary:

I LOVE some of the answers. What a cool sight. The English language continues to evolve. Every year new grammar rules are created. To this board of Deciders I would suggest that if a word is google-able, then it should be able to be published. I guess it is ultimately the author's choice, depending on what is being writ. I am also of the kind of wordsmith [get-sic] that Likes to makeUp rules and Words.

"Being brain injured, the challenges we face are inexplicable, or at least, ununderstandable."

blog entry essay with "UNUNDERSTANDABLE"

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1

I suppose indecipherable will be an acceptable replacement.

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1

How about abstract? If you look at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abstract Under full definition and in part b, it talks about how abstract means difficult to understand.

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0

I've just stumbled upon this having had cause to research the word myself.

It's not something that I'd use myself as I think it sounds clumsy and, as has already been demonstrated here, there are better alternatives. But, I'd argue that it is a perfectly valid word.

An ngram viewer search shows it (and 'ununderstood') in use for the last 200 years with many of the examples coming from some fairly heavyweight sources. Schopenhauer is a name that springs out from the list as a user.

For me though, the OED is the ultimate arbitrator in questions of legitimate usage:

ununderstandable, adj.

a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1958) IX. 51 Let him have known..In-intelligibilia, In-investigabilia, (as Tertullian speakes) un-understandable things, unrevealed decrees of God.

a1843 R. Southey Common-place Bk. (1849) 2nd Ser. 251/2 The vile and ununderstandable Machabeo he ranks with Homer and Virgil!

1872 B. Brierley Cotters of Mossburn xxiv. 252 There is something very ‘ununderstandable’ going on between Luke Brundrett and Miss Louisa Gerrard.

1891 H. Herman His Angel 46 He stammered a few un-understandable words.

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-1

Misunderstandable?

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    different meaning: "can be misunderstood" isn't "can't be understood".
    – Tim Lymington
    Commented May 18, 2011 at 20:32
-1

The word ununderstandble is noted in Wiktionary though!

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1
  • I personally never cite Wiktionary because there are huge gaps in their scholarship. You can't conclude anything from the existence of this entry. A good starting point for reputable references is OneLook.com (but it also links to some unreliable references such as Urban Dictionary).
    – MetaEd
    Commented Mar 25, 2013 at 23:48

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