- 1
So clear that you cannot get it wrong. If something is unmistakable, the moment you see it or hear it or smell it, you know exactly what it is — there is no room to think it is something else.
So clear that you cannot get it wrong清楚到不可能認錯。If something is unmistakable如果某樣東西是unmistakable的, the moment you see it or hear it or smell it你一看到、一聽到，或一聞到的那一刻, you know exactly what it is就確切知道那是什麼 — there is no room to think it is something else完全沒有空間去想它可能是別的東西。
It is used a lot about sounds, smells, faces, voices, styles, and signs: the unmistakable smell of , the unmistakable sound of rain on a metal roof, an unmistakable accent. Notice the feeling it carries: it is not just 'clear', it is 'clear because it is so special that nothing else is like it'. That is why it goes so well with things that have a strong character of their own.
It is used a lot about sounds, smells, faces, voices, styles, and signs這個字常常用在聲音、氣味、臉、聲音、風格和標誌上: the unmistakable smell of stinky tofu臭豆腐那股一聞就知道的味道, the unmistakable sound of rain on a metal roof鐵皮屋頂上雨聲那種一聽就知道的聲音, an unmistakable Taiwanese accent一聽就知道的台灣腔。Notice the feeling it carries注意它帶著的那種感覺: it is not just 'clear'不只是『清楚』, it is 'clear because it is so special that nothing else is like it'而是『因為太有特色沒有別的東西像它所以清楚』。That is why it goes so well with things that have a strong character of their own這就是為什麼它跟那些本身特色很強烈的東西特別搭。
It also works with signs and evidence — 'unmistakable signs of stress' means the signs are so plain that nobody can argue about what they mean. Writers like it because it quietly says 'do not argue with me', so you see it a lot in reviews and news.
It also works with signs and evidence它也可以用在跡象和證據上 — 'unmistakable signs of stress'『明顯到不會認錯的壓力跡象』 means the signs are so plain that nobody can argue about what they mean意思是那些跡象太明顯了沒有人能爭論它代表什麼。Writers like it because it quietly says 'do not argue with me'作家喜歡用這個字因為它悄悄傳達出『別跟我爭』的意思, so所以 you see it a lot in reviews and news你會在評論和新聞裡常常看到它。
It is a fairly formal word, but ordinary people use it about food, music, and voices without sounding stiff.
It is a fairly formal word這是個相當正式的字, but但 ordinary people use it about food, music, and voices一般人講到食物、音樂和聲音時也會用它 without sounding stiff不會顯得生硬。
組成un- (not) + mistake + -able (can be). Word by word: 'cannot be mistaken', that is, you cannot take it for something else. The -able ending here is passive — like 'readable' (can be read), 'unmistakable' means 'cannot be mistaken', not 'cannot make a mistake'.
同家族的字
- mistakethe middle piece; the old sense is 'take wrongly' — to take one thing for another
- unbelievablesame build: un- + verb + -able, 'cannot be believed'
- unbreakablesame build: un- + verb + -able
- comfortableshares the -able ending from Latin -abilis
原始詞典資料1 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
unmistakableadj
- 1
Unique, such that it cannot be mistaken for something else.
- Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing. Yet oddly enough I found here a far more unlikely substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed jar, that, by chance, I supposed had been really hermetically sealed. I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable.
- Whenever the locomotive was working hard there was unmistakable evidence of its higher power than its predecessors in the brilliant and explosive arcing between conductor shoes and the third rail; this was particularly vivid in Quarry Tunnel in the down direction, where the display equalled anything we have seen on the frostiest of nights in an electrified third-rail area.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。