insurmountableadj.
/ɪnsəˈmaʊntəb(ə)l/ That cannot be surmounted, overcome, or passed over.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > difficulty > practical impossibility > [adjective] > insuperable
invincible1482
unsuperable1526
unnavigable1609
inexsuperable1623
insuperable1657
insurmountable1696
unsurmountable1701
unreal1965
1696 E. Phillips New World of Words (new ed.) Insurmountable, that cannot be overcome by Labour and Industry.
a1704 J. Locke Exam. Malebranche §52 This difficulty is insurmountable, 'till I can make simplicity and variety the same.
1797 A. Radcliffe Italian I. vi. 159 The..angles of the insurmountable walls, which fenced the garden from the precipices below.
1848 E. Bulwer-Lytton Harold II. vii. iv. 180 The rock is well-nigh insurmountable to those who know not the passes.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vi. 150 Perhaps those prejudices might not prove insurmountable.
1876 T. Hardy Hand of Ethelberta II. xxxix. 139 Between himself and her there was that kind of division which is more insurmountable than enmity.
Derivatives
insurmountaˈbility n. (Craig 1847).
insurˈmountableness n. the state or quality of being insurmountable (Bailey vol. II, 1727).
insurˈmountably adv. so as not to be surmounted or overcome; ‘invincibly, unconquerably’ (Johnson 1755).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > difficulty > practical impossibility > [adverb] > insuperably
insuperably1675
insurmountably1861
1861 J. S. Mill Considerations Representative Govt. vii. 153 I do not think that the people of England have deserved to be, without trial, stigmatized as insurmountably prejudiced against anything which can be proved to be good either for themselves or for others.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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adj.1696