Standard Lemma guide

unachievable

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

adj

Meaning 1

That cannot be achieved (or only with great difficulty).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

impossible to achieve

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • an unattainable goal

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: unattainable, undoable, unrealizable

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English achieve Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-dhlom Proto-Indo-European *-dhlis Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English achievable English unachievable From un- + achievable.

Across languages

Translations

8 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: непостижим (nepostižim) — that cannot be achieved
  • Chinese Mandarin: 无法实现的 — that cannot be achieved
  • Chinese Mandarin: 无法完成的 — that cannot be achieved
  • Czech: nedosažitelný — that cannot be achieved
  • Finnish: saavuttamaton — that cannot be achieved
  • Russian: недостижи́мый (nedostižímyj) — that cannot be achieved
  • Spanish: inalcanzable — that cannot be achieved
  • Spanish: ilograble — that cannot be achieved