1.
[syn: intangible, impalpable]
2. imperceptible to the senses or the mind;
- Example: "an impalpable cloud"
- Example: "impalpable shadows"
- Example: "impalpable distinctions"
- Example: "as impalpable as a dream"
3. not perceptible to the touch;
- Example: "an impalpable pulse"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Impalpable \Im*pal"pa*ble\, a. [Pref. im- not + palpable: cf. F.
impalpable.]
1. Not palpable; that cannot be felt; extremely fine, so that
no grit can be perceived by touch. "Impalpable powder."
--Boyle.
[1913 Webster]
2. Not material; intangible; incorporeal. "Impalpable, void,
and bodiless." --Holland.
[1913 Webster]
3. Not apprehensible, or readily apprehensible, by the mind;
unreal; as, impalpable distinctions.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
impalpable
adj 1: incapable of being perceived by the senses especially the
sense of touch; "the intangible constituent of energy"-
James Jeans [syn: intangible, impalpable] [ant:
tangible, touchable]
2: imperceptible to the senses or the mind; "an impalpable
cloud"; "impalpable shadows"; "impalpable distinctions"; "as
impalpable as a dream" [ant: palpable, tangible]
3: not perceptible to the touch; "an impalpable pulse"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
99 Moby Thesaurus words for "impalpable":
airy, asomatous, astral, atomic, bodiless, branny, chalklike,
chalky, comminute, comminuted, corpuscular, crushed, decarnate,
decarnated, detrital, detrited, discarnate, disembodied,
disintegrated, dusty, efflorescent, embryonic, ethereal,
evanescent, extramundane, farinaceous, fine, flaky, floury,
furfuraceous, germinal, ghostly, gone to dust, granular, grated,
ground, immaterial, imperceptible, imponderable, inappreciable,
incorporate, incorporeal, indiscernible, infinitesimal, insensible,
insubstantial, intangible, invisible, levigated, mealy,
microcosmic, microscopic, milled, molecular, nonmaterial,
nonphysical, nonsubstantial, occult, otherworldly, pestled,
phantom, powdered, powdery, psychic, pulverant, pulverized,
pulverulent, reduced to powder, scaly, scobicular, scobiform,
scurfy, shadowy, sharded, shredded, spiritual, subatomic,
supernatural, tenuous, thin, transmundane, triturated,
ultramicroscopic, unapparent, unappreciable, unconcrete, unearthly,
unembodied, unextended, unfleshly, unobservable, unperceivable,
unphysical, unseeable, unsolid, unsubstanced, unsubstantial,
unworldly, weightless