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Jan 9, 2026
This week’s theme
Words that look like misspelling

This week’s words
abjective
librate
psilanthropy
odorable
impassible

impassible
Flagellation of Christ, 1459-1460
Art: Piero della Francesca

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

impassible

PRONUNCIATION:
(im-PAS-uh-buhl)

MEANING:
adjective:
1. Not susceptible to suffering, pain, or injury.
2. Incapable of feeling emotion.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French impassible, from Latin impassibilis, from in- (not) + passibilis (passible), from passus, past participle of pati (to suffer). Earliest documented use: 1340.

USAGE:
“Notable for his absence is Cheteshwar Pujara, the impassive and impassible figure who outlasted Australia’s bowlers on each of the past two tours.”
Daniel Brettig; Kiwi Capitulation, Injuries Bad Omens for Ageing India; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Nov 8, 2024.

“Grant ... offered a portrait of the Confederate general’s bearing (‘a man of much dignity, with an impassible face’).”
David Shribman; Obama’s Memoir Is a Masterpiece of Introspection; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Nov 21, 2020.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth -- and truth rewarded me. -Simone de Beauvoir, author and philosopher (9 Jan 1908-1986)

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