Grammar Tips & Articles »

inscrutable - vocabulary

This Grammar.com article is about inscrutable - vocabulary — enjoy your reading!


48 sec read
1,587 Views
  Ed Good  —  Grammar Tips
Font size:

adjective

Incapable of being analyzed, investigated, or scrutinized; impenetrable, not easily understood; unfathomable; mysterious, as in an inscrutable smile; incapable of being seen through, as in the inscrutable depths of the ocean.

We have as yet hardly spoken of the infant: that little creature, whose innocent life had sprung, by inscrutable decree of Providence, a lovely and immortal flower, out of the rank luxuriance of a guilty passion. How strange it seemed to the sad woman, as she watched the growth, and the beauty that became every day more brilliant, and the intelligence that threw its quivering sunshine over the tiny features of this child! Her Pearl!—for so had Hester called her; not as a name expressive of her aspect, which had nothing of the calm, white, unimpassioned lustre that would be indicated by the comparison. But she named the infant “Pearl,” as being of great price—purchased with all she had—her mother’s only treasure!

—Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter (1850)

Rate this article:

Have a discussion about this article with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this article to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "inscrutable - vocabulary." Grammar.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 Nov. 2024. <https://www.grammar.com/inscrutable-vocabulary>.

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Check your text and writing for style, spelling and grammar problems everywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Check your text and writing for style, spelling and grammar problems everywhere on the web!

    Free Writing Tool:

    Instant
    Grammar Checker

    Improve your grammar, vocabulary, style, and writing — all for FREE!


    Quiz

    Are you a grammar master?

    »
    Identify the sentence with correct use of the present simple tense:
    A She always takes the bus to work.
    B We will have completed the project by Monday.
    C They have been singing all night.
    D She had finished her book last week.

    Improve your writing now:

    Download Grammar eBooks

    It’s now more important than ever to develop a powerful writing style. After all, most communication takes place in reports, emails, and instant messages.