irreplaceable

English

Etymology

From ir- +‎ replaceable.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

irreplaceable (not comparable)

1. Incapable of being replaced, especially because of uniqueness or finiteness.

   irreplaceable batteries

   irreplaceable family portrait

   irreplaceable team member

   • 1960, Economist Intelligence Unit (Great Britain), The Commonwealth and Europe (page 182)

     For some purposes lead is unique and, apparently, irreplaceable. Battery plates may be an example of this.

   • 2021 February 20, Hannah Selinger, “Who Is Still Buying VHS Tapes?”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, archived from the original on 28 March 2022:

     But whether or not the VCR makes a complete comeback, VHS enthusiasts agree that these tapes occupy an irreplaceable place in culture.

Antonyms

• replaceable

Derived terms

• irreplaceability
• irreplaceably
• irreplaceableness

Translations

that cannot be replaced

Belarusian: незаме́нны (njezamjénny) Bulgarian: незаменим (bg) (nezamenim) Catalan: irreemplaçable (ca), insubstituïble Czech: nenahraditelný (cs) m Dutch: onvervangbaar (nl) Esperanto: neanstataŭigebla Finnish: korvaamaton (fi) French: irremplaçable (fr) Galician: insubstituíble (gl), insubstituíbel (gl) German: unersetzbar (de), unersetzlich Hungarian: pótolhatatlan (hu) Italian: insostituibile (it) Latvian: neaizstājams Macedonian: незаменлив (nezamenliv) Norwegian: Bokmål: uerstattelig Nynorsk: uerstatteleg Occitan: irreemplaçable, irremplaçable Polish: niezastąpiony m Portuguese: insubstituível Russian: незамени́мый (ru) (nezamenímyj) Spanish: irreemplazable (es), insustituible Ukrainian: незамі́нний (nezamínnyj)