irreconcilable means unable to be reconciled; opposed; uncompromising. It carries an Arena rating of 1567, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, irreconcilable ranks #2,403 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,472 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #3,088 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #4,121 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
Why “irreconcilable” is a great word
Incapable of being brought into agreement or harmony; fundamentally opposed or incompatible. From Middle French irréconciliable, from Late Latin irreconciliābilis, from Latin in- ("not") + reconciliāre ("to reconcile") + -ābilis ("able to be"), first recorded in English between 1590 and 1600. Unlike "incompatible" (which suggests a mere failure to fit together) or "incongruous" (which implies a jarring mismatch of appearance or style), irreconcilable denotes a chasm of principle that no bridge of reason or compromise can ever span. It is the cold silence between two people who have spoken their final truths, the fatal arithmetic of a ledger where assets and debts will never balance, and the quiet dread of two people in a room, speaking the same language yet understanding nothing—the word for when the bridge has burned and even the idea of its shape feels like a lie.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French irréconciliable, from Late Latin irreconciliābilis, from in- (“not”) + reconciliō (“to reconcile”) + -ābilis (“-able”). By surface analysis, ir- + reconcilable.
adj
- Unable to be reconciled; opposed; uncompromising.
- Incompatible, discrepant, contradictory.e.g.“I amused myself by thinking that in his choice of books he showed pleasantly the irreconcilable sides of his fantastic nature.” — 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXVI, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
noun
- Something that cannot be reconciled.
- A Confederate who moved to another country following the American Civil War, rather than live in a reunited United States.
- A vociferous opponent of the Treaty of Versailles.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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