irrevocable

/ɪˈrɛvəkəbəl/

/ɪˈrɛvəkəbəl/

If you're on a diet but eat one tiny piece of chocolate, it might start an irrevocable slide into bad eating. Describe something as irrevocable if it cannot be undone or taken back.

If you break down irrevocable, you wind up with ir "not," re "back" and vocable from the Latin vocare "to call." So if something is irrevocable, you cannot call it back — it is permanent. You must fulfill an irrevocable promise and live with an irrevocable decision. A law is irrevocable if it states within the law that it cannot be nullified. Now that's final!

Definitions of irrevocable

1. adjective

   incapable of being retracted or revoked
   “"firm and irrevocable is my doom"- Shakespeare”

   synonyms: irrevokable

   sealed

   determined irrevocably

   antonyms:

   revocable

   capable of being revoked or annulled

   rescindable, voidable

   capable of being rescinded or voided

   reversible

   capable of being reversed