Unbearableness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality or state of being extremely difficult or painful to endure
2. A condition of causing great discomfort or distress that cannot be tolerated
3. The characteristic of something that is so unpleasant or severe it cannot be borne

Etymology: "Unbearableness" is a straightforward formation: the adjective "unbearable" with the suffix "-ness" added to turn a quality into a noun. "Unbearable" itself combines the prefix "un-", meaning "not", with "bearable", which comes from "bear" in its older sense of "endure" or "tolerate." So the word names the state of being past endurance. The suffix "-ness" is one of English's oldest and most productive noun-forming endings, descending from Old English "-nes" and attached to adjectives since the earliest recorded stages of the language. Because of this, speakers can build a noun like this from almost any adjective, which is why it is easy to form new ones on demand. The noun is simply the quality expressed by the adjective, so its meaning follows directly from its parts.

Synonyms: intolerability, insufferability, unendurability, unbearability

Antonyms: bearableness