Word Study
untouchable
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun untouchable has 1 sense
- untouchable(n = noun.person) harijan - belongs to lowest social and ritual class in India; Array is a kind of castaway, ishmael, outcast, pariah
Derived form adjective untouchable4
Adjective untouchable has 5 senses
- untouchable(s = adj.all) Array - beyond the reach of criticism or attack or impeachment; "for the first time criticism was directed at a hitherto untouchable target"
- untouchable(s = adj.all) unassailable - impossible to assail; Array
- untouchable(s = adj.all) Array - forbidden to the touch; "in most museums such articles are untouchable"
- untouchable(s = adj.all) Array - ( especially used in traditional Hindu belief of the lowest caste or castes) defiling; Array Derived form noun untouchable1
- untouchable(s = adj.all) inaccessible, unobtainable, unprocurable - not capable of being obtained; "a rare work, today almost inaccessible"; "timber is virtually unobtainable in the islands"; "untouchable resources buried deep within the earth"
OXFORD DICTIONARY
untouchable, adj. & n.
--adj. that may not or cannot be touched.
--n. a member of a hereditary Hindu group held to defile members of higher castes on contact.
--adj. that may not or cannot be touched.
--n. a member of a hereditary Hindu group held to defile members of higher castes on contact.
Usage
Use of the term, and social restrictions accompanying it, were declared illegal under the Indian constitution in 1949.
Derivative
untouchability n. untouchableness n.
THESAURUS
untouchable
DP, Ishmael, affectless, anesthetized, antipodean, arctic, autistic, awesome, awful, back of beyond, banned, barred, blunt, castaway, catatonic, chill, chilly, cold, cold as charity, cold-blooded, coldhearted, contraband, cool, declasse, derelict, dispassionate, displaced person, divine, drugged, dull, emotionally dead, emotionless, evictee, exile, expatriate, expellee, forbade, forbid, forbidden, frigid, frosted, frosty, frozen, godforsaken, heartless, heavenly, holy, hyperborean, icy, illegal, illicit, immovable, impassible, impassive, inaccessible, ineffable, inenarrable, inexcitable, inexpressible, insusceptible, inviolable, inviolate, leper, nonemotional, nonpermissible, not permitted, numinous, objective, obtuse, off limits, out of bounds, out of reach, out of touch, out-of-the-way, outcast, outcast of society, outcaste, outlaw, outlawed, outsider, pariah, passionless, persona non grata, prohibited, religious, ruled out, sacred, sacrosanct, self-absorbed, social outcast, soulless, spiritless, spiritual, taboo, tabooed, unacceptable person, unaffectionate, unallowed, unapproachable, unauthorized, under the ban, undesirable, unemotional, unfeeling, ungetatable, unimpassioned, unimpressionable, unlawful, unlicensed, unloving, unpassionate, unpermissible, unresponding, unresponsive, unsanctioned, unspeakable, unsusceptible, unsympathetic, unutterable, venerable, verboten, vetoed
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