Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

irreparable

 
American Heritage Dictionary:

ir·rep·a·ra·ble

(ĭ-rĕp'ər-ə-bəl) pronunciation
adj.
Impossible to repair, rectify, or amend: irreparable harm; irreparable damages.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin irreparābilis : in-, not; see in-1 + reparābilis, reparable; see reparable.]

irreparability ir·rep'a·ra·bil'i·ty or ir·rep'a·ra·ble·ness n.
irreparably ir·rep'a·ra·bly adv.

Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Fowler's Modern English Usage:

irreparable, irrepairable

Top

Irreparable, meaning 'that cannot be recovered or made good', is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, and is used of circumstances and relationships, typically qualifying words such as consequences, loss, harm, injury, and damage. The word used to describe physical objects, machines, etc., that cannot be repaired is irrepairable (or unrepairable, not repairable, beyond repair), pronounced with the stress on the third syllable as in repair; but irreparable damage is the normal expression whether or not the damage is physical:
These people were supposed to be making us fit and instead they were doing irreparable damage to my heart and lungs—J. Herriott, 1977
The strikers had defied a decree...to end the strike, which he said was causing irreparable damage to the economy—Keesings, 1990
Headcount is down from a peak of 1,400 to 562,...and presumably that's about as far as it can go without irreparable damage to the business—business website, British English 2002.

Previous:irrelevance, irrelevancy, irregardless, irrefutable
Next:irreplaceable, irrepressible, irresistible
Roget's Thesaurus:

irreparable

Top

adjective

    Offering no hope or expectation of improvement: cureless, hopeless, incurable, irremediable. See hope/despair.

Antonyms by Answers.com:

irreparable

Top

adj

Definition: unable to be fixed
Antonyms: fixable, mendable, repairable, reparable

Translations:

Irreparable

Top

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - uoprettelig, uerstattelig

Nederlands (Dutch)
niet (meer) te repareren

Français (French)
adj. - irréparable

Deutsch (German)
adj. - irreparabel, nicht wiedergutzumachend

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - ανεπανόρθωτος, αγιάτρευτος

Italiano (Italian)
irreparabile

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - irreparável

Русский (Russian)
непоправимый

Español (Spanish)
adj. - irreparable, irremediable

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - irreparabel, ohjälplig, obotlig, oersättlig

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
不能修补的, 不能挽回的

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 不能修補的, 不能挽回的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 고칠 수 없는, 불치의

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 修理できない, 取り返しのつかない

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) متعذر إصلاحه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮שלא ניתן לתיקון, חסר תקנה‬


 
 
Related topics:
irreparably
irreparableness
irretrievable

Related answers:
What is the meaning of irreparable harm? Read answer...
What is irreparable damage mean? Read answer...
What is the base word for irreparable? Read answer...

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

 

Copyrights:

American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
 Fowler's Modern English Usage. Oxford University Press. © 1999, 2004 All rights reserved.  Read more
Roget's Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms by Answers.com. © 1999-present by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

Follow us
Facebook Twitter
YouTube