inexorable
adjective

- not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped

- continuing without any possibility of being stopped

- not able to be moved by entreaty or persuasion

Merriam-Webster, Cambridge Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

Inexorable entered English in the mid-16th century (c. 1545–55), borrowed directly from the Latin inexōrābilis.

That Latin word breaks cleanly into three parts. The prefix in- means "not." The core verb is ōrāre, meaning "to speak" or "to pray" — the same root that gives us oration, oracle, and adore.

Sitting between them is the suffix -āb(i)lis, meaning "capable of being." So exōrābilis meant "capable of being moved by speaking or pleading" — i.e., persuadable. Add in- and you get the opposite: something that cannot be persuaded, no matter how eloquently you beg.

The Romans used it primarily of people — a judge who wouldn't budge, a creditor who wouldn't relent. English writers of the 1500s and 1600s followed that usage, often pairing it with personified forces: "deaf and inexorable fate."

Over the centuries, the word gradually shifted from describing stubborn people to describing unstoppable processes — time, gravity, economics, disease. Today it almost always attaches to trends and forces rather than individuals, though its core meaning has never changed: no amount of talking, pleading, or bargaining will make the slightest difference.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

adamant, beyond all entreaty (anyone's control, appeal), cannot be halted, carved in stone, ceaseless, come what may, deaf to all appeals, fixed, implacable, immovable, inescapable, inevitable, INEXORABLE, intractable, ironclad, irreversible, it will not be denied, leave no room for appeal, like a force of nature (gravity), merciless, no ifs ands or buts (turning back), not open to discussion, nothing can stand in its way (will budge it, will stop it), obdurate, past the point of no return, pitiless, relentless, remorseless, rolling like a juggernaut, set in stone, tenacious, the die is cast, the tide cannot be turned, there is no arguing with it, there's no stopping it, time waits for no one, unalterable, unavoidable, unbending, unceasing, uncompromising, undeviating, unfaltering, unforgiving, unpersuadable, unrelenting, unstoppable, unyielding, written in the stars (in stone)

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“The INEXORABLE march of technology sometimes makes one feel like living in a science fiction novel, doesn't it?"

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THANKS to Konrad for suggesting today’s OWAD.

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