1
as in hopeless
not capable of being cured or reformed
believed that there was no such thing as an unrecoverable criminal
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in irreparable
not capable of being repaired, regained, or undone
the flood caused unrecoverable damage to our home
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Recent Examples of unrecoverable
Some of this may have been prompted by the First and Second World Wars, which resulted in such multitudes of dead—men whose bodies were often unrecoverable—that the old rituals were no longer tenable.
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Cody Delistraty, The New Yorker, 22 June 2024
The Pivotal team is aware, however, that just one crash might render the company’s trajectory unrecoverable, and potential customers are expected to complete a two-week program at its training center.
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2024
Internal polling can even be used to push opponents to drop out, showing unrecoverable levels of support.
—Leah Askarinam, ABC News, 7 Feb. 2024
Faced with unrecoverable job losses in agriculture, small-town leaders courted manufacturers with subsidies, obliging regulations, and a cheap, non-unionized workforce.
Manufacturers, accepting this invitation, industrialized the rural landscape.
—Daniel Immerwahr, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2023
See all Example Sentences for unrecoverable 
Cody Delistraty, The New Yorker, 22 June 2024
The Pivotal team is aware, however, that just one crash might render the company’s trajectory unrecoverable, and potential customers are expected to complete a two-week program at its training center.
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2024
Internal polling can even be used to push opponents to drop out, showing unrecoverable levels of support.
—Leah Askarinam, ABC News, 7 Feb. 2024
Faced with unrecoverable job losses in agriculture, small-town leaders courted manufacturers with subsidies, obliging regulations, and a cheap, non-unionized workforce.
Manufacturers, accepting this invitation, industrialized the rural landscape.
—Daniel Immerwahr, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2023
See all Example Sentences for unrecoverable
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unrecoverable
Adjective
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The battle between parents and tech-savvy children over access to the Internet and apps might seem hopeless.Daniel de Visé, USA TODAY, 26 Dec. 2024
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Burns is asked how to avoid feeling hopeless during a stretch like this.Dan Duggan, The Athletic, 16 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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What To Know In a brief filed with a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., the Justice Department argued that accepting guilty pleas from Mohammed and his co-defendants would cause irreparable harm.Kevin Lynn, Newsweek, 8 Jan. 2025
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TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance also argue that even a temporary ban would cause irreparable harm to the platform.Maria Curi, Axios, 7 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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During the Kursk operation, the enemy has already lost over 38,000 soldiers in this single direction alone, with approximately 15,000 of them irrecoverable losses.Kevin Lynn, Newsweek, 7 Jan. 2025
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This kind of situation occurs when irrecoverable past investments drive decisions, even when those costs are irrelevant to future outcomes.Shanna Apitz, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Chase point transfers are almost always irreversible, but the actual rules are a little confusing.Christopher Elliott, King Features Syndicate, The Mercury News, 30 Dec. 2024
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His term was filled with remarkable highs, like leading peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt, and irreversible lows, like his inability to repair a failing American economy.Destinee Adams, NPR, 30 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Once deleted, users can also manually empty the trash folder, making those files and communications irretrievable and truly deleted from the online platform.Lars Daniel, Forbes, 26 Sep. 2024
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Going into Comic-Con, Marvel really did need to reaffirm its swagger, to prove 2023 was a momentary ebb rather than the start of an irretrievable decline.Adam B. Vary, Variety, 28 July 2024
Adjective
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Still, a year before her record-tying stint at the Olympics, she was diagnosed with two incurable kidney diseases that almost stopped her in her tracks.Rachel Murphy, Health, 8 Jan. 2025
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After he was diagnosed with incurable grade 4 brain cancer in June 2023, Long developed a series of pioneering treatments inspired by melanoma breakthroughs.Janine Henni, People.com, 22 Oct. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near unrecoverable
Cite this Entry
“Unrecoverable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unrecoverable. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.
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