unalterable meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

unalterable

adj

Etymology From un- + alterable.

Incapable of being altered, or of changing.

People of unalterable ideas still insisted upon calling him "Sergeant" when they met him, which was in some degree owing to his having still retained the well-shaped moustache of his military days, and the soldierly bearing inseparable from his form.1874, Thomas Hardy, “Coming Home—A Cry”, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 99–100:
... every statute in the Bible and in the law books is an attempt to defeaat a law of God—in other words an unalterable and indestructible law of nature.c. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Letter VIII:

1 more example

For instance, we’d need to make one of the following assumptions: (1) that the system will be programmed with an unalterable goal preservation meta-goal, (2) that the training process would select for such a meta-goal, or (3) that the adoption of the meta-goal itself is instrumentally convergent.2025 June 13, Rhys Southan, Helena Ward, Jen Semler, “A timing problem for instrumental convergence”, in Philosophical Studies, Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Irreversible, irrevocable.