How to Use indefinable in a Sentence

indefinable

adjective
  • He has an indefinable quality that draws people to him.
  • Of course, beauty is subject to taste and culture and all sorts of indefinable things.
    — Television Critic, Los Angeles Times, 21 Jan. 2026
  • The images have the feel of something pulled from someone else’s camera, from some indefinable time in the past.
    — Sophie Haigney, New York Times, 19 May 2021
  • But sometimes a dish just has something indefinable, a quality that lights up the mouth with pure pleasure.
    — Stephanie Schorow, BostonGlobe.com, 8 June 2018
  • Even in a case, like this one, where excess is the point, comedy still depends on an indefinable subtlety.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 25 Aug. 2023
  • What this leaves us with is an almost indefinable style, not really seen on the Continent.
    — Vogue, 14 Sep. 2017
  • The complexity of the metaverse, its indefinable nature, means more pathways to attack and spread.
    — Rob Mason, Forbes, 20 May 2022
  • There's a sort of unquantifiable, indefinable quality that just makes a good celebration.
    — SI.com, 4 Nov. 2019
  • The movie's unvarnished exploration of motherhood in all its messy, indefinable facets struck a chord even for cast members who haven't yet had that experience themselves.
    — Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 6 Dec. 2021
  • The Barclay Brass filled the church with its own indefinable power that night, more austere than Rush but no less eccentric or exploratory.
    — Washington Post, 4 Jan. 2021
  • Let Johns’s sensual, strange, almost indefinable images and sculptures relight your visual-cerebral wick.
    — Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 1 Sep. 2021
  • Pitt, at the time, was in his early 30s and gaining notice for being incredibly handsome and in possession of the indefinable charisma that makes a movie star.
    — Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 7 Feb. 2024
  • His paintings are filled with people laboring away at confounding tasks, wearing outfits that vaguely suggest uniforms, in the midst of composite, indefinable cityscapes.
    — J.s. Marcus, WSJ, 27 Nov. 2020
  • Two-hundred-and-fifty years later, Bellini depicted him in a state of ecstatic transport, his arms open to receive an indefinable radiance that all but overwhelms him.
    — Washington Post, 13 Jan. 2021
  • Abstract images composed of indefinable light and inky darkness recur as well, even in his later multiscreen video installations, which are more narrative-driven.
    — Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Our movie tastes are determined by some indefinable electrical current of enthusiasm or joy or deep, radiating sadness, or some combination of the three.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 24 Feb. 2026
  • Managing director is one of those almost indefinable positions that should be nearly invisible to patrons, said Ward.
    — David Lyman, The Enquirer, 25 Sep. 2020
  • Each image simultaneously evokes feelings of sweeping grandeur and indefinable yearning.
    — Chadd Scott, Forbes, 12 Feb. 2023
  • Based on a podcast of the same name, the series employs a shifting visual style and jarring overhead shots, all of which amplify the indefinable sense of menace in this impeccably modern facility filled with vast empty spaces.
    — Dorothy Rabinowitz, WSJ, 17 Dec. 2018
  • Christie’s small, middle-class white communities are rife with suspicion, infidelity, unease, and a sort of indefinable evil that permeates almost everybody and everything.
    — Scott Bradfield, The New Republic, 1 Nov. 2022
  • Her small, local, middle-class white communities are rife with suspicion, infidelity, unease, and a sort of indefinable evil that permeates almost everybody and everything.
    — Scott Bradfield, The New Republic, 1 Nov. 2022
  • People hold fierce loyalties to their Arthur Avenue stores of choice, mostly based on nostalgia, and the indefinable value of a personal relationship with one’s foodmonger.
    — Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2023
  • Between the dream and reality stands a world of challenges, from marketing and distribution of Murphy’s record to hitting that sweet, indefinable spot in pop-culture where art and socially conscious activism meet.
    — John Wenzel, The Know, 27 Sep. 2019
  • For Romero, the Night of the Living Dead zombies represented 1,001 indefinable anxieties tearing at the world.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 18 July 2017
  • The Coens are true American classics, indefinable and incomparable.
    — Tim Moffatt, EW.com, 26 Jan. 2024
  • The Coens are true American classics, indefinable and incomparable.
    — Tim Moffatt, EW.com, 26 Jan. 2024
  • Like Harper, Greene has the requisite combination of generational talent, preternatural charisma and indefinable star power to become an iconic player of his era.
    — Dave Sheinin, courant.com, 14 June 2017
  • The communities that Tyler, now 76, profiles share an indefinable quality that might be described as their Bawlamer-ness; yet each also is strikingly individual and described in meticulous detail.
    — Mary Carole McCauley, baltimoresun.com, 13 July 2018
  • Try to grasp the mystery of the furry mythical creature in Firelei Báez’s ultra-realist rendering, and try to define the indefinable angst in Heidi Hahn’s ghostly expressionist painting.
    — Doug MacCash, NOLA.com, 13 Oct. 2020
  • Pain is a complex, sometimes indefinable experience, one that can’t be easily evaluated on a typical postpartum exam, especially in a medical office that is expected to cycle patients through in 15 minutes.
    — Laura Beil, Cosmopolitan, 18 July 2016

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'indefinable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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