INACCESSIBLE

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Capable of being reached only with great difficulty or not at all

Synonyms:

inaccessible; unaccessible

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

outback; remote (inaccessible and sparsely populated)

pathless; roadless; trackless; untracked; untrod; untrodden (lacking pathways)

out of reach; unapproachable; unreachable; unreached (inaccessibly located or situated)

un-come-at-able; un-get-at-able; ungetatable (difficult to reach or attain)

Attribute:

accessibility; availability; availableness; handiness (the quality of being at hand when needed)

Antonym:

accessible (capable of being reached)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not capable of being obtained

Example:

untouchable resources buried deep within the earth

Synonyms:

inaccessible; unobtainable; unprocurable; untouchable

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

unavailable (not available or accessible or at hand)

Derivation:

inaccessibility (the quality of not being available when needed)

Credits

Context examples:

There was some sense of freedom in the vast expanse, inaccessible though it was to me, as compared with the narrow darkness of the courtyard.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

All round were high and turreted walls, with at the corner a bare square-faced keep, gaunt and windowless, rearing up from a lofty mound, which made it almost inaccessible to an assailant.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He is completely immersed in large public questions, and is rather inaccessible to all ordinary emotions.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I found a great many foxes, disparaging whole vineyards of inaccessible grapes; but I found very few foxes whom I would have trusted within reach of a bunch.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Human cooperation is crucial to honeyguides because bees’ nests are often hidden in inaccessible crevices high up in trees – and honeybees sting ferociously.

(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A being whom I myself had formed, and endued with life, had met me at midnight among the precipices of an inaccessible mountain.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It may be that we are condemned to spend our whole lives in this strange, inaccessible place.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Ruth's promised cure for the habit, flamboyantly labelled, he stowed away in the most inaccessible corner of his bureau.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was perfectly easy, therefore, for anyone to get into the garden, but the window was entirely inaccessible, since there was no waterpipe or anything which could help the most active man to climb it.