irretrievable

C1 Topic:Describing Qualities
US /ˌɪr.əˈtriː.və.bəl/ UK /ˌɪr.ɪˈtriː.və.bəl/
adj Freq #85745

Meanings

  1. 1
    adj

    impossible to recover, restore, or put right

    The archive suffered irretrievable damage in the fire.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 adj · impossible to recover,... irrecoverableirreparablelost
Opposites
retrievablerecoverablerepairable
Word family
Forms irretrievably
Derived forms irretrievably
Related forms retrieverecovery

Etymology

Formed from ir-, the assimilated form of in- meaning not, + retrievable. Retrievable is built from retrieve, ultimately from Old French retrouver, meaning to find again.

Topics

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