unaccountable
/ʌnəˈkaʊntəb(ə)l
/adjective
1Unable to be explained: a strange and unaccountable fact...
- Because of some unaccountable glitch, Paul is unable to get the following item posted this morning.
- There are plenty of jokes in the show and there's plenty of McKenna's whit - but there's something else that's really unaccountable - magic.
- A shadowy figure has appeared on the horizon to put these democratically unaccountable Johnny Come Latelys in their place.
Synonyms
inexplicable, unexplainable, insoluble, unsolvable, incomprehensible, beyond comprehension, beyond understanding, unfathomable, impenetrable, puzzling, perplexing, baffling, bewildering, mystifying, mysterious, arcane, inscrutable, peculiar, unusual, curious, strange, freak, freakish, unparalleled, queer, odd, bizarre, extraordinary, astonishing, obscure, abstruse, enigmatic
informal weird, fluky, freaky, spooky
British informal rum
North American informal off the wall
archaic wildering
1.1(Of a person or their behaviour) unpredictable and strange: he was not only the most charismatic man she’d ever met, but also the most complex and unaccountable...
- He is unaccountable, except in those rare cases when he bats in interleague games played under National League rules.
- Or could it be that it was a contest judged by one thoroughly unaccountable person?
- They also point out that these drivers are unaccountable and untraceable.
2(Of a person, organization, or institution) not required or expected to justify actions or decisions; not responsible for results or consequences: there are enormous risks in leaving such agencies uncontrolled and unaccountable a powerful and unaccountable institution...
- The claimed input of non-elected people from outside of the Cabinet also undermines the democratic process as such people are unaccountable to the electorate.
- The true scandal - is that ministers appoint these people [quangocrats], give them considerable powers, and yet it seems that ministers are completely unaccountable for what they do once they have been appointed.
- Instead they will leap at the chance to hand matters over to an inquiry, where a judge or some other apparently neutral, unaccountable figure can spend months or years establishing ‘the truth’, Solomon-style.
Synonyms
not responsible, unanswerable, not answerable, not liable;
free, clear, exempt, immune;
out of control, unsupervised
Derivatives
unaccountability
- Because of the mystery surrounding the unaccountability of funds - it tars everybody.
- This is the first stage in becoming less the victims of government unaccountability and demanding the facts on what and where all taxation is spent.
- When David took over as legal director of MI5 and MI6, part of his job was curbing the cult of secrecy and unaccountability in intelligence work, and putting the agencies' information-gathering on a proper legal footing.
unaccountableness
unaccountably
/ adverb ...- He confessed, ‘as an industry, many of us have been remarkably, unaccountably complacent.’
- And while it's good to see Rocky Elsom airlifted from the abyss to which he had suddenly been unaccountably assigned, what exactly did John Roe do last week to go from upstart entry straight back to Coventry?
- The interviews she has given in advance of the book make fascinating reading, and will strike a chord with the thousands of women who, like me, have woken up one morning to find themselves suddenly and unaccountably middle-aged.
- charentais
- charentais melon
- Charente
- charette
- charge
- chargeable
- charge account
- chargeback
- charge-cap
- charge card
- charge carrier
- charge conjugation
- charged
- charge density
- charge description master
- chargee
- chargehand
- chargemaster
- charge nurse
- Charge of the Light Brigade
- charger
- charge sheet
- chargrill
- chargé
- chargé d'affaires