Insoluble
adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Any substance that cannot be dissolved.
"As there is a partial vacuum inside the drum, the liquid is sucked inside the drum and the insolubles are deposited on the outer surface of the membrane filter."
- 1 That cannot be dissolved. physical
"Petroleum is largely insoluble in water."
- 2 That cannot be solved.
"The reason Fisher concluded that the problem is likely insoluble is that the ability of real-world agents to act on new perceived opportunities of arbitrage – including those that turn out to be incorrect – makes stability impossible to demonstrate without additional strong (and unrealistic) assumptions."
- 3 That cannot be explained.
"Near-synonyms: unexplained, mysterious; see also Thesaurus:incomprehensible, Thesaurus:mysterious"
- 4 That cannot be broken down or dispersed.
- 1 without hope of solution wordnet
- 2 (of a substance) incapable of being dissolved wordnet
- 3 admitting of no solution or explanation wordnet
Example
More examples"Aluminium is insoluble in water."
Etymology
From Middle English insolible, from Middle French insoluble, from Latin insolūbilis, from in- + solūbilis. Piecewise doublet of insolvable and unsolvable. By surface analysis, in- + soluble.
Related phrases
More for "insoluble"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.