unbearable
adjective
unbearable is spelled U-N-B-E-A-R-A-B-L-E: 10 letters and 4 syllables. It appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,613th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, unbearable means “So unpleasant or painful as to be unendurable” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in unbearable?
| Letters | 10: U-N-B-E-A-R-A-B-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words; the 15,613th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is unbearable?
Unbearable appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,613th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce unbearable?
Unbearable has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-unbearable.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of unbearable
- more unbearable comparative
- most unbearable superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does unbearable mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
So unpleasant or painful as to be unendurable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Unbearable in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense so unpleasant or painful as to be unendurable:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | invivable, insupportable |
| German | unerträglich |
| Portuguese | insuportável |
| Spanish | insoportable, infumable, inaguantable |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does unbearable come from?
From Middle English unberable, equivalent to un- + bearable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).