Word of the Day

: August 22, 2013

inscrutable

adjective in-SKROO-tuh-bul

What It Means

: not readily investigated, interpreted, or understood : mysterious

inscrutable in Context

The umpire's inscrutable expression gave no hint as to what his ruling would be.

"But the idea behind the project-that data can be intimate and expressive and is, in the end, ours to tinker with-is a vital one. It's the opposite of your location data ending up in an inscrutable spreadsheet…." - From an article by Kyle Vanhemert on Wired.com, July 22, 2013

Did You Know?

You may have to scrutinize today's word closely in order to speculate as to its origins, but there is at least one clue in this sentence. "Inscrutable" derives from the Late Latin adjective "inscrutabilis," which can be traced back to the verb "scrutari," meaning "to search or to examine." "Scrutari" is also the source of the English words "scrutinize" and "scrutiny." Incidentally, the antonym "scrutable" ("capable of being deciphered or understood") is a part of our language as well, though it's less common than "inscrutable."