Word of the Day

: February 17, 2021

indissoluble

adjective in-dih-SAHL-yuh-bul

What It Means

: not dissoluble; especially : incapable of being annulled, undone, or broken : permanent

indissoluble in Context

"He was the only soul aboard with whom I could speak openly, in an absolute sense; for that matter, he to me the same. We were locked together in an indissoluble embrace, its nature the most simple and straightforward first principle: that no hurt should reach the men that we could prohibit." — William Brinkley, The Last Ship, 1988

"Pope Francis … has acknowledged the concerns of divorced Catholics. He has set in motion a high-level debate about whether and how the church could change its posture toward them without altering a doctrine that declares marriage to be permanent and indissoluble." — Michael Paulson, The New York Times, 24 Jan. 2015

Did You Know?

Indissoluble and its antonym dissoluble ("capable of being dissolved or disintegrated") both date their first print appearances to the 16th century, and both owe a debt to Latin dissolubilis, which means "dissoluble; capable of being dissolved." While the word dissolve in that gloss may call to mind the chemical process by which something mixed with a liquid becomes part of the liquid (as when salt or sugar dissolve in water), indissoluble primarily relates to other meanings of dissolve: "destroy" and "disintegrate," "terminate" and "annul." Something indissoluble—such as a treaty, contract, or vow—is permanent. The English word dissolve, in all its meanings, is a cousin to indissoluble and dissoluble. Dissolubilis derives from Latin dissolvere (from dis- + solvere, "to loosen") the source of our word dissolve.