inscrutable
adjective
in·scru·ta·ble
in-ˈskrü-tə-bəl 
: not readily investigated, interpreted, or understood : mysterious
an inscrutable smile
inscrutable motives
Did you know?
Scrutinizing the inscrutable may be futile: even close scrutiny can fail to decipher it. Scrutinizing the scrutable, on the other hand, is likely to yield some understanding. All of these scrut- words have the same Latin root: scrutari, meaning “to search or examine.” While scrutiny, scrutinize, and inscrutable all prove themselves useful in everyday discourse, English speakers don’t tend to call much on scrutable, which functions as a synonym of comprehensible.
Synonyms
Examples of inscrutable in a Sentence
Supersymmetry is a magic mirror, and everything in what we imagine to be the real world has its ghostly, inscrutable mirror image.
—
Ian Stewart, Prospect, September 2003
Of all the myths that have grown up around Alan Greenspan, the most powerful is the idea that he's willfully inscrutable.
—James Surowiecki, New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2001
That wily politicians might adopt Franklin's distinction between appearance and reality to become inscrutable confidence men did not seem to trouble him.
—John H. Summers, Journal of American History, December 2000
an inscrutable work of art
He was a quiet, inscrutable man.
Ian Stewart, Prospect, September 2003
Of all the myths that have grown up around Alan Greenspan, the most powerful is the idea that he's willfully inscrutable.
—James Surowiecki, New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2001
That wily politicians might adopt Franklin's distinction between appearance and reality to become inscrutable confidence men did not seem to trouble him.
—John H. Summers, Journal of American History, December 2000
an inscrutable work of art
He was a quiet, inscrutable man.
Recent Examples on the Web
The folded piece of paper in his wallet was perhaps the most pregnant and inscrutable remnant of all.
—Greg Jackson, The New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2024
Each stop gradually peels back some slight emotional layers of its somewhat inscrutable main pairing.
—Kambole Campbell, IndieWire, 2 Nov. 2024
The Indian tourists shot us a brief and inscrutable look, smiled, and then turned their attention back to their soft drinks and mobile phones.
—Yiyun Li, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024
Individually, these long numerical lists — known as embeddings — are just inscrutable chains of digits.
—John Pavlus, Quanta Magazine, 18 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for inscrutable 
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Greg Jackson, The New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2024
Each stop gradually peels back some slight emotional layers of its somewhat inscrutable main pairing.
—Kambole Campbell, IndieWire, 2 Nov. 2024
The Indian tourists shot us a brief and inscrutable look, smiled, and then turned their attention back to their soft drinks and mobile phones.
—Yiyun Li, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024
Individually, these long numerical lists — known as embeddings — are just inscrutable chains of digits.
—John Pavlus, Quanta Magazine, 18 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for inscrutable
Dictionary Entries Near inscrutable
Cite this Entry
“Inscrutable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inscrutable. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
inscrutable
adjective
in·scru·ta·ble
in-ˈskrüt-ə-bəl
: not easily understood : mysterious
an inscrutable expression
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