Word.ws English Dictionary

non-translatable

non-translatable adjective: unable to be translated.

Adjective

non-translatable (not comparable)

  1. Unable to be translated.
    • That a few days off in the middle of a heatwave would trigger such a domino effect highlights Japan’s obsession with gambaru, a virtually non-translatable concept that means doing one’s best and persevering through the hardest of times.2020 August 24, Kaori Enjoji, “‘Do or die’ mentality brings Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to the brink”, in CNN, archived from the original on 23 May 2025

Origin of non-translatable

From non- + translatable.

Questions about non-translatable

What does non-translatable mean?
Non-translatable means unable to be translated.
What part of speech is non-translatable?
Non-translatable is an adjective.

Words near non-translatable in the dictionary

  1. non-trads
  2. non-traffic
  3. non-transferability
  4. non-transferable
  5. non-transferably
  6. non-translatable
  7. non-transposing
  8. non-traumatic
  9. non-treasure
  10. non-treasures
  11. non-trivial

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: non-translatable (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “non-translatable.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/non-translatable. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.