How to Use untranslatable in a Sentence

untranslatable

adjective

• Ikh bin dokh a yid,’ which is of course untranslatable.
  — Gabe Friedman, sun-sentinel.com, 17 Oct. 2019
• The other word that keeps coming up is licoroso, one of those famously untranslatable Portuguese words.
  — Ann Abel, Forbes, 5 Jan. 2022
• The pain that connects Rama and Laurence is like a secret language, an untranslatable grammar of alienation and loss.
  — Mark Olsenstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 13 Jan. 2023
• The Danish have hygge, that untranslatable feeling of coziness, but the Japanese have monozukuri.
  — Hannah Lott-Schwartz, Fortune, 16 June 2019
• But the untranslatable original maintains its sway over me.
  — Gabriel Rom, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2022
• Though the hair and makeup at Fashion Week often feel untranslatable to the real world, these looks felt extremely approachable.
  — Kathleen Hou, The Cut, 10 Sep. 2017
• In this context, the language of truth is not simply untranslatable but illegible in the original.
  — Justin Taylor, Harper's Magazine, 16 Mar. 2021
• But Austad doesn’t dismiss unique lessons as untranslatable.
  — Max G. Levy, Wired, 24 May 2021
• It was long branded untranslatable, a view reinforced by a turgid rendering published in 1931.
  — The Economist, 8 Mar. 2018
• Corrales’ colleague Danilo Chacón referred to the specimen as a bicho grande, using an untranslatable term that falls somewhere between critter and beast.
  — Myles Karp, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Oct. 2020
• Sure, the fanatic’s zeal is almost untranslatable for those outside of his or her belief system; what is obvious and logical to the true believer sounds deranged or offensive or dangerous to the one on the outside.
  — Longreads, 8 May 2018
• In other words, Crews-Chubb’s rough and tumble compositions are not about Assyrian kings, monkey deities, African freedom fighters, untranslatable codices or belfies.
  — David Pagel, latimes.com, 14 Apr. 2018
• Writing in English, Spanish and Nahuatl, Vértiz honors and relishes the feeling of being untranslatable.
  — Rosa Boshier, Washington Post, 17 June 2019
• German’s sehnsucht, Portuguese’s saudade—that are generally held to be untranslatable.
  — Michael Chabon, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2017
• Coord then took all of these esoteric street rules and untranslatable parking signs and distilled into information that could be easily digested in a searchable map.
  — Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 19 Mar. 2018
• There is widespread obsession with untranslatable words, as countless listicle-makers can attest.
  — Katy Steinmetz, Time, 8 May 2018
• Maybe the really good stuff is built differently—and is irreconcilably untranslatable.
  — Max G. Levy, Wired, 24 May 2021
• Family members have a special untranslatable language of subtle gestures, finger play, winks and nods, little insults, odd allusions and needling words, that are devastating within the family yet meaningless to outsiders.
  — Paul Theroux, Harper’s Magazine , 17 Aug. 2022
• These words are untranslatable: the linguistically bespoke.
  — Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian, 21 Dec. 2019
• Produced in association with the city's biggest Maracatu troupe, Azougue Nazare — the tricky title's first word is a near-untranslatable Portuguese term evoking the mercurial liveliness of quicksilver — makes no pretense at unbiased objectivity.
  — Neil Young, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Jan. 2018

Last Updated: 18 Aug 2024