inescapable
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- inescapableness noun
- inescapably adverb
Etymology
Origin of inescapable
First recorded in 1785–95; in- 3 + escapable ( def. )
Explanation
Something that's inescapable is impossible to get away from. A reluctant swimmer may stop trying to talk his mom out of making him go to swimming lessons once he realizes that learning to swim is inescapable. Any force or occurrence or duty that you just can't avoid is inescapable. Feeling angry at people you love sometimes is inescapable, and children growing older is also inescapable. The adjective combines the prefix in, or "not, the opposite of," with escapable, which comes from the Vulgar Latin word excappare, literally "get out of one's cape," or "leave a pursuer holding just one's cape."
Vocabulary lists containing inescapable
The Honest Truth
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Winger
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"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The nautical metaphor is inescapable: The visitor is completely adrift here.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
In Los Angeles, the department’s airships are an often inescapable part of the city’s landscape, immortalized in both rap songs and Hollywood blockbusters.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 28, 2026
The propulsive soundtrack, full of inescapable earworms, became the first to top the Billboard charts since 2022, when Disney's Encanto created a similar craze.
From BBC • Feb. 1, 2026
This numbing and inescapable truth gives a unique urgency to Mr. Rosolie’s “Junglekeeper.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 29, 2026
The city seemed to be awakening after a long, inescapable nightmare.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
