unalterable

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English un-

English alter

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 alterable

English unalterable

From un- + alterable.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

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Adjective

unalterable (comparative more unalterable, superlative most unalterable)

1. Incapable of being altered, or of changing.
   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, “Coming Home—A Cry”, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 99–100:

     People of unalterable ideas still insisted upon calling him "Sergeant" when they met him, which was in some degree owing to his having still retained the well-shaped moustache of his military days, and the soldierly bearing inseparable from his form.

   • c. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Letter VIII:

     ... every statute in the Bible and in the law books is an attempt to defeaat a law of God—in other words an unalterable and indestructible law of nature.

   • 2025 June 13, Rhys Southan, Helena Ward, Jen Semler, “A timing problem for instrumental convergence”, in Philosophical Studies, Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     For instance, we’d need to make one of the following assumptions: (1) that the system will be programmed with an unalterable goal preservation meta-goal, (2) that the training process would select for such a meta-goal, or (3) that the adoption of the meta-goal itself is instrumentally convergent.

2. Irreversible, irrevocable.

Synonyms

• inalterable

Antonyms

• alterable

Derived terms

• unalterably

Translations

incapable of being changed

• Bulgarian: неизменен (bg) (neizmenen), непроменим (bg) (nepromenim)
• Catalan: inalterable
• French: inaltérable (fr)
• Georgian: შეუცვლელი (šeucvleli), უცვლელი (ucvleli), არაცვლადი (aracvladi), შეუცვლადი (šeucvladi), უცვლადი (ucvladi)
• German: unumstößlich (de)
• Greek: αμετάβλητος (el) (ametávlitos)

  Ancient Greek: ἀμετάθετος (ametáthetos)

• Italian: inalterabile (it)
• Portuguese: inalterável (pt)
• Spanish: inalterable (es)

Anagrams

• unalertable, unrelatable