inscrutable
\ɛ̃.skʁy.tabl\
The verdict
“inscrutable” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qu’on ne peut scruter, qui échappe à la connaissance humaine.'
Corpus desk
Index FR-inscrutable · inscrutable · French
inscrutable · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "I" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | inscrutable |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ɛ̃.skʁy.tabl\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « inscrutable » en français
Rare enough to double-check
inscrutable is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ɛ̃.skʁy.tabl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qu’on ne peut scruter, qui échappe à la connaissance humaine.'".
inscrutable has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is inscrutable, spelled I-N-S-C-R-U-T-A-B-L-E.
Definition
- 1Qu’on ne peut scruter, qui échappe à la connaissance humaine.'
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how inscrutable appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Les légendes locales en savaient long sur les conciliabules qu’avaient abrités ces coupoles mauresques et ces hautes voûtes noires aux suintements de cave sous lesquelles avaient prié, aux pieds d’un Dieu inscrutable, Joachim de Flore et Cola di Rienzi.
Michel-Charles était dénué de dons d’écrivain, mais la précision et l’intensité de son récit feraient croire qu’à son insu peut-être, sous sa poitrine décorée et couverte de drap fin, au fond de ses yeux presque inscrutables, cette masse de cloisons de bois, de métal incandescent et de chair humaine continuait à brûler et à fumer.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.