imponderable

Definitions

im- (not, the in- 'not' form before p) + ponder (weigh) + -able (able to be) = 'not able to be weighed.' Some things have no weight you can read off any scale — a crowd's mood, an enemy's intentions, tomorrow's luck. They are real and they matter, but you cannot measure them in advance, so we call them imponderable.

Why It Means This

Imponderable is the negative of weighable. Where ponderable factors can be put on a scale and measured, imponderables resist all measurement — not because they are unimportant, but because they are too vague, too human, or too far in the future. As a noun it is often plural: 'the imponderables' are the unknowns you simply have to allow for.

Common Collocations

• 1.imponderable factor难以估量的因素
• 2.imponderable variable未知变量
• 3.an imponderable question难以回答的问题
• 4.the great imponderable最大的未知数

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Voter turnout remains the great imponderable of this election.

• 2.

  There are too many imponderable factors to make a firm forecast.

• 3.

  The weather on race day is an imponderable no planner can control.

• 4.

  Human emotion is an imponderable that statistics can't capture.

Easily Confused

imponderable vs unpredictable — unpredictable means you can't foresee what will happen (unpredictable weather). imponderable is stronger and more abstract: you can't even weigh or measure the factor at all, so its effect is impossible to assess. Can't guess the outcome → unpredictable; can't measure the factor itself → imponderable.