unmentionable
/ʌnˈmɛnʃ(ə)nəb(ə)l
/adjective
Too embarrassing, offensive, or shocking to be spoken about: the unmentionable subject of incontinence...
- It seems to be the unmentionable subject, and everyone assumes that Cheney will be the vice president, and he probably will be.
- This particular kind of death makes people skittish, thinking suicide either a shameful or unmentionable kind of death.
- It made you wonder if there was something smelly and not disclosed, or perhaps it was meeting the Ghost from Melbourne, or as one shareholder and Mr Clark both described it ‘another unmentionable company.’
Synonyms
taboo, censored, forbidden, banned, interdicted, proscribed, prohibited, not to be spoken of, ineffable, unspeakable, unutterable, unprintable, indescribable, out of bounds, beyond the pale, off limits, that dare not speak its name, disapproved of, frowned on;
offensive, embarrassing, shocking;
indecent, indecorous, rude, immodest, impolite;
scandalous, disgraceful, appalling, shameful, obscene, filthy
informal no go
noun (usually unmentionables) chiefly humorous
A person or thing that is too shocking or embarrassing to be mentioned by name: wearing nothing but fig leaves over their unmentionables...
- I think we'll find that if we finally dare to mention the unmentionable, finally start pointing out that with rights come responsibilities, sure, some people will pout and whine and wave their little fists about.
- Elizabeth's multi-talented Godson amused her court with his translations of risqué foreign verses and not surprisingly, bold wit that he was, he was never afraid to mention the unmentionable.
- Alaina fought not to snap at Sonora for mentioning the unmentionable, instead she asked, ‘What is this, do you know?’
Derivatives
unmentionability
- The Wicked one is amused by the unmentionability of blackness.
- The invisibility of the monument at ground level symbolizes the unmentionability of the war.
- The unmentionability of certain words in the Indian media is really alarming.
unmentionableness
- Kevin underscores a point I neglected - the unmentionableness of Bush's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform.
- Given that anything that Anderson gets involved with turns into a steaming pile of unmentionableness.
- The unmentionableness of menstrual products probably made the copywriters speechless.
unmentionably
- The sound for that is unmentionably violent and is not likely to be heard anytime soon. http://observatine.net/
- During the past decade, structured flat shoes have been unmentionably ‘out’ and dowdy.
- Essentially, you can use the same formation or attack pattern in any situation, which even includes (with some unmentionably minor differences) battles with bosses.