adj, noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   One who or that which is inscrutable; a person, etc. that cannot be comprehended.

Adjective

1. 1
   Difficult or impossible to comprehend, fathom, or interpret.

   "His inscrutable theories would years later become the foundation of a whole new science."

Adjective

1. 1
   of an obscure nature wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

abstruseambiguousarcanebeyond understandingcabalisticchinese

Antonyms

All antonyms

clearexotericpellucidperspicuous

Example

More examples

"She looked at him with an inscrutable expression."

Etymology

Borrowed into late Middle English from Late Latin īnscrūtābilis, from in- (“not”) + scrūtō (“to examine”), corresponding to in- + scrutable

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.