# insufferable

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ɪnˈsʌfəɹəb(ə)l/ · frequency rank #37,517

## Definitions
1. Not sufferable; very difficult or impossible to endure; intolerable, unbearable.

## Etymology
From Late Middle English insufferable (“unbearably painful, intolerable”), and then either:
* from in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + sufferable, souffrable (“bearable, endurable, tolerable; allowable, permissible; able to or willing to bear hardship; forbearing, long-suffering; calm, self-restrained, slow to anger; capable of suffering”) (from Anglo-Norman sufferable, souffrable, and Old French souffrable, suffrable (“sufferable, tolerable”)); or
* from Old French insouffrable (“which cannot be endured or suffered; something insufferable or unendurable”) (now dialectal), from in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + souffrable, suffrable.
From Old French souffrable, suffrable are derived from Medieval Latin sufferābilis, from Latin sufferre + -ābilis (suffix meaning ‘able or worthy to be’); while sufferre is the present active infinitive of sufferō, subferō (“to bear or carry under; to bear, endure, suffer, undergo”), from sub- (prefix meaning ‘below, under’) + ferō (“to bear, carry; to endure, suffer, tolerate”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”)). The English word is analysable as in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + sufferable.

## Common misspellings (17)
`innsufferable`, `insfuferable`, `inssufferable`, `insufefrable`, `insuferable`, `insuffearble`, `insufferabble`, `insufferabel`, `insufferablle`, `insufferalbe`, `insufferbale`, `insufferible`, `insufferrable`, `insuffreable`, `inusfferable`, `isnufferable`, `nisufferable`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/insufferable