inescapable

English

Alternative forms

• inescapeable (nonstandard spelling)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Italic *n̥-

Latin in-bor.

Middle English in-

English in-

English escape

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlis

Latin -bilis

Latin -ābilis

Old French -ablebor.

Middle English -able

English -able

English escapable

English inescapable

From in- + escapable. Piecewise doublet of unescapable.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

  (file)

Adjective

inescapable (comparative more inescapable, superlative most inescapable)

1. Impossible (unable) to avoid or escape; not escapable.

   Synonyms: inevitable, unescapable; see also Thesaurus:inevitable

   Antonyms: escapable, evitable

   • 1961 March, “Talking of trains”, in Trains Illustrated, page 130:

     The Rugby flyover, too, is now an inescapable feature of the West Coast main line landscape.

   • 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:

     Wages absorbed 80% of the total revenue (which was inescapable), and they were rising at almost twice the rate of fares, which were pegged by law.

   • 2023 July 12, Dan Sabbagh, quoting Jake Sullivan, “Zelenskiy forced to recalibrate to avert Nato summit falling-out”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 October 2026:

     Later, the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told CNN that Ukraine could not join Nato immediately as it was “an inescapable fact” that the treaty’s mutual defence clause would mean allies would be obliged to enter a direct war with Russia.

Derived terms

• inescapableness
• inescapably

Related terms

• escapability
• escapably
• inescapability
• unescapability
• unescapably

Translations

impossible (unable) to avoid or escape

• Dutch: onontkoombaar (nl), onvermijdelijk (nl)
• Finnish: vääjäämätön (fi)
• French: inévitable (fr), inéluctable (fr)
• German: unausweichlich (de), unentrinnbar (de), unumgänglich (de), unvermeidlich (de)
• Greek: αναπόφευκτος (el) m (anapófefktos), αναπόδραστος (el) (anapódrastos), άφευκτος (el) (áfefktos)

  Ancient Greek: ἄφυκτος (áphuktos)

• Japanese: 逃げられない (ja) (nigerarenai)
• Latin: inēluctābilis
• Manx: neuscapailagh
• Portuguese: inevitável (pt) m or f, incontornável (pt) m or f
• Russian: неизбе́жный (ru) (neizbéžnyj), неотвратимый (ru) (neotvratimyj), неизбывный (ru) (neizbyvnyj)
• Spanish: inevitable (es), insoslayable (es)
• Ukrainian: немину́чий (nemynúčyj), невідворо́тний (nevidvorótnyj), неуникни́й (neunyknýj), неуникне́нний (neunyknénnyj)

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Italic *n̥-

Latin in-lbor.

Spanish in-

Spanish escapable

Spanish inescapable

From in- + escapable.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ineskaˈpable/ [ĩn.es.kaˈpa.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: in‧es‧ca‧pa‧ble

Adjective

inescapable m or f (masculine and feminine plural inescapables)

1. inescapable

   Synonym: imperioso