Word.ws English Dictionary

that which has been seen cannot be unseen

that which has been seen cannot be unseen is the alternative form of what has been seen cannot be unseen.

Meaning of what has been seen cannot be unseen

Proverb

what has been seen cannot be unseen

  1. Repulsive, disturbing, or horrific sights can never be erased from memory once they have been seen.
    • At Dachau he was witness to real rather than abstract suffering; what has been seen cannot be unseen, nor can it be rationalized.2010, Brad Prager, “Suffering and Sympathy in Volker Schlöndorff's Der neunte Tag and Dennis Gansel's NaPolA”, in Paul Cooke, Marc Silberman, editors, Screening War: Perspectives on German Suffering...

Questions about that which has been seen cannot be unseen

What is that which has been seen cannot be unseen the alternative form of?
That which has been seen cannot be unseen is the alternative form of what has been seen cannot be unseen.

Words near that which has been seen cannot be unseen in the dictionary

  1. that was then; this is now
  2. that way
  3. that way inclined
  4. that way madness lies
  5. that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger
  6. that which has been seen cannot be unseen
  7. that will do
  8. that'd
  9. that'd've
  10. that'll
  11. that'll be the day

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: that which has been seen cannot be unseen (page history and authors); what has been seen cannot be unseen (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-that which has been seen cannot be unseen.wav.

Cite this entry: “that which has been seen cannot be unseen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/that_which_has_been_seen_cannot_be_unseen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.