INSURMOUNTABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does insurmountable mean? 

• INSURMOUNTABLE (adjective)
  The adjective INSURMOUNTABLE has 2 senses:

1. not capable of being surmounted or overcome

2. impossible to surmount

  Familiarity information: INSURMOUNTABLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INSURMOUNTABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not capable of being surmounted or overcome

Synonyms:

insurmountable; unsurmountable

Context example:

insurmountable disadvantages

Similar:

insuperable; unconquerable (incapable of being surmounted or excelled)

Also:

unconquerable (not capable of being conquered or vanquished or overcome)

impossible (not capable of occurring or being accomplished or dealt with)

Antonym:

surmountable (capable of being surmounted or overcome)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Impossible to surmount

Synonyms:

insuperable; insurmountable

Similar:

unconquerable (not capable of being conquered or vanquished or overcome)

 Context examples 

“And yet, with a little more material, we may prove that they are not insurmountable,” said Holmes.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It is not to be supposed that any prior attachment on your side—in short, you know as to an attachment of that kind, it is quite out of the question, the objections are insurmountable—you have too much sense not to see all that.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I saw an insurmountable barrier placed between me and my fellow men; this barrier was sealed with the blood of William and Justine, and to reflect on the events connected with those names filled my soul with anguish.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The latter method of obtaining the desired intelligence was dilatory and unsatisfactory; besides, I had an insurmountable aversion to the idea of engaging myself in my loathsome task in my father’s house while in habits of familiar intercourse with those I loved.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Cold, want, and fatigue were the least pains which I was destined to endure; I was cursed by some devil and carried about with me my eternal hell; yet still a spirit of good followed and directed my steps and when I most murmured would suddenly extricate me from seemingly insurmountable difficulties.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

We passed rapidly along; the sun was hot, but we were sheltered from its rays by a kind of canopy while we enjoyed the beauty of the scene, sometimes on one side of the lake, where we saw Mont Salêve, the pleasant banks of Montalègre, and at a distance, surmounting all, the beautiful Mont Blanc, and the assemblage of snowy mountains that in vain endeavour to emulate her; sometimes coasting the opposite banks, we saw the mighty Jura opposing its dark side to the ambition that would quit its native country, and an almost insurmountable barrier to the invader who should wish to enslave it.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)