indeclinable

See also: indéclinable

English

Etymology

From French indéclinable, from Middle French, from Latin indeclinabilis. Equivalent to in- +‎ declinable.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): /ˌɪndɪˈklɑjnəb(ə)l/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

indeclinable (not comparable)

1. That one cannot decline; unavoidable.
   • 1994, Helen R. Myers, To Wed at Christmas, page 101:

     He'd planned to work a double shift Friday night, but Gladys Silverman's indeclinable invitation threw a hefty wrench into David's plans.

2. (grammar, of a word) Not grammatically declinable; having no inflections.

Synonyms

• undeclinable

Hypernyms

• uninflectable
• invariable

Derived terms

• indeclinableness
• indeclinably

Translations

not grammatically declinable

• Arabic: مَبْنِيّ m (mabniyy), غَيْرُ مُتَمَكِّنٍ m (ḡayru mutamakkinin)
• Belarusian: нескланя́льны (njesklanjálʹny)
• Bulgarian: несклоня́ем (bg) (nesklonjáem)
• Catalan: indeclinable
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不變格的 / 不变格的 (bù biàngé de)

• Czech: nesklonný
• Danish: ubøjelig
• Dutch: onverbuigbaar (nl)
• Finnish: taipumaton (fi)
• French: indéclinable (fr)
• German: undeklinierbar (de), indeklinabel (de)
• Greek: άκλιτος (el) (áklitos)

  Ancient Greek: ἄκλιτος (áklitos)

• Hungarian: ragozhatatlan (hu)
• Icelandic: óbeygjanlegur (is)
• Ingrian: painumatoin
• Italian: indeclinabile
• Latin: indeclinabilis
• Norman: îndêclyinnabl'ye
• Old English: undeclīniġendlīċ
• Polish: nieodmienny (pl)
• Portuguese: invariável (pt), indeclinável (pt)
• Russian: несклоня́емый (ru) (nesklonjájemyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: нескло̀њив, и̏ндеклинабӣлан

  Latin: nesklònjiv (sh), ȉndeklinabīlan (sh)

• Slovak: nesklonný
• Ukrainian: невідмі́нюваний (uk) (nevidmínjuvanyj)
• Yiddish: אומבייגעוודיק (yi) (umbeygevdik)

Noun

indeclinable (plural indeclinables)

1. (grammar) A word that is not grammatically inflected.

Further reading

• “indeclinable”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin indēclīnābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central) [in.də.kliˈnab.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [in.de.kliˈna.ble]
• IPA^(key): (Northwestern) [in.de.kliˈnab.ble]

Adjective

indeclinable m or f (masculine and feminine plural indeclinables)

1. indeclinable

Further reading

• “indeclinable”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “indeclinable”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “indeclinable” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “indeclinable”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Italic *n̥-

Latin in-

Latin dēclīnābilis

Latin indēclīnābilisder.

Spanish indeclinable

Derived from Latin indēclīnābilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /indekliˈnable/ [ĩn̪.d̪e.kliˈna.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: in‧de‧cli‧na‧ble

Adjective

indeclinable m or f (masculine and feminine plural indeclinables)

1. (grammar) indeclinable
2. unavoidable

Derived terms

• indeclinablemente

Further reading

• “indeclinable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025