Unbeatable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Impossible to defeat or surpass in competition or excellence
2. Incapable of being overcome or surpassed, signifying an unmatched level of skill or performance in any competitive scenario
3. Too strong or excellent to be defeated or exceeded by anyone else

Etymology: "Unbeatable" is a plain build: the prefix "un-", meaning "not", attached to "beat" and the suffix "-able", meaning "able to be" or "capable of being." Put together, the word describes something that cannot be beaten, which is exactly its current sense of being impossible to defeat. The twist lies in the middle step. English speakers did not form "unbeatable" by adding "un-" to a word that already existed as "beatable." Instead, "beatable" itself came later, built backward from "unbeatable" and then treated as the base word. Linguists call this a back-formation, a process in which a shorter word is inferred from a longer one, as if the longer form had been made from it.

Synonyms: invincible, unassailable, unconquerable, insurmountable, indomitable

Antonyms: beatable, vulnerable, defeatable, losable, weak