Unratifiable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Incapable of being formally approved, confirmed, or made officially valid by the required authority or procedure; unable to be sanctioned or validated through ratification; not subject to lawful or accepted confirmation as a binding agreement
2. Describing something that cannot receive official consent or endorsement through the usual ratifying process; lacking the capacity to be legally or formally confirmed; impossible to approve by a governing or authorized body
3. Characterizing an action, treaty, or decision that is not eligible for formal confirmation or acceptance; failing to meet the criteria for legitimate endorsement; unable to be made effective by ratification within the established legal or procedural framework

Etymology: "Unratifiable" is a plain compound: the prefix "un-", meaning "not", attached to "ratifiable", which is itself built from "ratify" and the suffix "-able", meaning "capable of being". So the word describes something that cannot be made valid by formal approval. The root of "ratify" is the Latin "ratus", the past participle of "reri", meaning "to reckon, consider, or judge", with the sense of making something fixed or settled. "Ratify" carries that idea of confirming that an agreement or decision is binding. The "-able" ending lets a treaty or act be described as capable of such confirmation, and "un-" reverses it. Because the parts are transparent, the word needs little explanation: it is used almost entirely in legal and diplomatic contexts, where a proposal may be judged defective from the outset and so could never be given effect through the usual approval process.

Synonyms: irrevocable, unapprovable, invalid, unenforceable, nonratifiable

Antonyms: ratifiable, approvable, valid, confirmable, enforceable