unalterable

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ alterable.

Pronunciation

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

Anagrams

• unalertable, unrelatable