Incurable Meaning
/ˌɪnˈkjʊəɹəbl/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjOf an illness, condition, etc, that is unable to be cured; healless.
adjIrremediable, incorrigible.
Sentence Examples
That disease is incurable.
He has an incurable disease.
The doctor said that this ailment is incurable.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The doctor gave the patient a sad diagnosis of an ____ disease with no known treatment.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The doctor sadly explained that the patient's rare condition was ____ with current medicine.
Word Origin & History
From Old French incurable, from Late Latin incurabilis.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"They were labouring under a profound, and, as it might have seemed, an almost incurable ignorance."
— 1854, James Stephen, On Desultory and Systematic Reading:
"Heatherlegh, the Doctor, kept, in addition to his regular practice, a hospital on his private account — an arrangement of loose-boxes for Incurables, his friends called it — but it was really a sort of fitting-up shed for craft that had been damaged by stress of weather."
— 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom Rickshaw”, in The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales, Allahabad: A.H. Wheeler and Co., page 7:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The doctor gave the patient a sad diagnosis of an ____ disease with no known treatment.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The doctor sadly explained that the patient's rare condition was ____ with current medicine.