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inexplicably

adverbC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,180 of 15,258neutral

Inexplicably means for reasons nobody can account for. It happened, and no explanation is available.

It usually sits before a verb or opens a clause, so the door was inexplicably unlocked, or inexplicably, nobody had been told. The word is a strong claim, since it rules out every explanation rather than the obvious ones, which is why it often really means nobody has looked into it. It is a favourite of narrative writing, where it flags a mystery without having to describe one. Unaccountably is the near synonym.

Definitions of inexplicably

  1. 1adverbinexplicablyIn a way that cannot be explained.C1

    “The train was inexplicably held outside the station for an hour.”

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    inexplicābilis

  2. Middle French

    inexplicable

  3. Middle English

    inexplicable

  4. English

    inexplicable

  5. English, today

    inexplicably

From inexplicable + -ly. inexplicable comes from Middle English inexplicable, from Middle French inexplicable, from Latin inexplicābilis, from in- + explicābilis. by surface analysis, in- + explicable.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 28 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

inexplicably in the wild

  • Adversaries were generally tribesmen whose dress was inexplicably Saudi Arabian rather than Algerian or Moroccan.

    Luck of the Legion

  • In this episode, the delicious "non-fat" yogurt at a new shop makes everyone inexplicably gain weight, while George tries to outsmart his childhood nemesis Lloyd Braun.

    The Non-Fat Yogurt

  • After the most recent uncrewed mission to Mars inexplicably fails, interest in the Red Planet is still high.

    War of the Worlds: New Millennium

  • In 1938, his level suddenly dropped inexplicably, so that he was not starting in the 1938 World Cup.

    Otto Siffling

  • Of the predellas, the only that remains is Saint John the Baptist Preaching, the others are inexplicably lost.

    Ansidei Madonna

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the inexplicable family

inexplicableinexplicably

inexplicably — used about once every 8,182 pages · #11,180 · point at the bar for the others