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    Unobtainable means you cannot get it, no matter how you try. Use it for things that are supposed to be gettable but are not: a medicine that no pharmacy in the country stocks, a ticket that sold out in four minutes, a permit the office has stopped issuing, information a company refuses to release. That is the flavour — a door that exists but will not open for you. It is formal, and you meet it far more in writing than in speech; in conversation people say 'you just can't get it' or 'it's impossible to find'. English also uses it about people, and there the meaning shifts in a way like: an unobtainable person is someone you are attracted to who is out of reach — usually the phrase is 'unattainable' for a goal and 'unobtainable' for a thing, but people mix them, and both are heard. If you want the safest rule: unobtainable for objects and supplies, unattainable for dreams, standards, and goals.

    拿不到的、弄不到手的。台灣日常會說「買不到」「調不到貨」「搞不到」——重點是「本來應該有,但你就是拿不到」。若講的是目標、理想拿不到,英文比較常用 unattainable(遙不可及)。

    例句逐字對照、搭配詞、易混淆字

    這一義的完整解析還沒打開。訂閱後可以看到例句怎麼拆、常跟哪些字一起出現, 以及容易跟它搞混的字。

    看看訂閱內容

組成un- (not) + obtain (get) + -able (can be done) — so 'not able to be got'. Obtain is Latin ob- + tenere, to hold; -able comes through French from Latin -bilis.

同家族的字

  • obtainthe verb inside it
  • containshares Latin tenere, to hold — hold together
  • maintainalso tenere — hold in place
  • retaintenere again — hold back, keep
  • availablethe practical opposite in most sentences

原始詞典資料2 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。

unobtainableadj

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    Unable to be obtained: not able to be acquired or reached.

    • With secondhand bullhead rail almost unobtainable, the NYMR has been forced to go for new flat-bottom rail and orders are being placed; 58 fb rails are already en route to the railway.
    • Common Goal’s grand ambition is to reach a position where 1% of football’s entire multibillion dollar industry is donated to charity. It might seem an impossible dream – just as a young boy’s fantasy of becoming a top footballer almost always seems unobtainable. But Mata was one of those who fulfilled his footballing dream.

unobtainablenoun

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    Someone or something that cannot be obtained.

    • On the whole they are at present fairly cheap, and are not overburdened with long priced stamps, and still fewer unobtainables.
    • Refusals, or unobtainables, are difficult to predict, but seem to be affected by the nature of the respondent, the sponsorship of the study, and the nature of the questions. Some refusals are definite and final […]

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。