Word of the Day
: March 21, 2020incommunicado
playWhat It Means
: without means of communication : in a situation or state not allowing communication
incommunicado in Context
Their government has agreed to give the Red Cross access to the prisoners who are being held incommunicado.
"[Tommy Lee] Jones' character is his father, a world-renowned hero astronaut who has been incommunicado for 16 years after venturing to Neptune on a mission to find signs of intelligent life in the great beyond." — Soren Andersen, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington), 18 Sept. 2019
Did You Know?
Incommunicado ultimately comes from Latin but made its way into English via the Spanish incomunicado. We borrowed the word (with a slightly modified spelling) from the past participle of the Spanish verb incomunicar, meaning "to deprive of communication." The Spanish word, in turn, derives from the Latin prefix in- and the verb communicare, meaning "to communicate."
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Test Your Vocabulary
Unscramble the letters to create a word that refers to the loss of voice and of all but whispered speech: AAPINHO.
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