inextricable

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   so closely connected or entangled that separation is impossible

   The two legal questions became inextricable once the evidence was combined.

2. 2
   adj

   impossible to escape from, solve, or understand

   One false assumption led the committee into an inextricable confusion.

Through Middle French inextricable from Latin inextricabilis, 'that cannot be disentangled,' formed from in- ('not') + extricabilis, from extricare ('to disentangle or free'). Latin tricae meant hindrances or perplexities, which helps explain the later extension from physical tangles to insoluble problems.

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