What does "unfathom" mean?

to come to comprehend; demystify.

What is a synonym for "unfathom"?

Common synonyms include: fathom, fathom, unravel, unravel.

Unfathom

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1
to come to comprehend; demystify. transitive
"[…] if the anatomists and physicians find it beyond their penetration to unfathom the mysterious depths in the texture, generation, growth, and operations, of the human body; […]"

Synonyms

All synonyms

fathom fathom unravel unravel

Example

More examples

"[…] if the anatomists and physicians find it beyond their penetration to unfathom the mysterious depths in the texture, generation, growth, and operations, of the human body; […]"

Etymology

From un- + fathom, possibly created by analogy with untangle, unravel, etc.

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