fathom

The experience suggests that to achieve enlightenment, one must embrace these limitations, come to peace with contradictions, and maintain faith in a larger order that we cannot fathom.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

The only solution Owens and Austin Baurichter could fathom then was creating a ballot measure.

From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026

The septet's mammoth global tour was making a stop in her backyard – the Indonesian capital, Jakarta – and as a longtime fan, she couldn't fathom missing it.

From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026

“It’s hard to fathom that you’re watching the exploding d— and driving through whales, and you’re like, ‘Wow, this really feels threatening to us in any political way,’” Kripke says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026

But at the last moment Mia had burned the prints and negatives, for reasons even Pearl could not fathom.

From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng

But “Clarence” is also heartbreakingly sincere, with some serious plumbing of faith, commentary on systems of oppression and fathoms of emotion in Stanfield’s virtuosic double performance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2024

In the late 1800s the Yup’ik people from the Alaskan coast recorded building kayaks that were 2.5 fathoms long plus a cockpit, which was the length of an arm with a closed fist.

From Science Magazine ● May 31, 2023

“He’s playing it off. I don’t think he fathoms how bad this is. Shame on him. I hope he gets what he deserves.”

From Washington Times ● Jul. 6, 2021

And after some initial tests in the shallow water, the Thresher headed out to where the ocean was 1,400 fathoms, or a mile and half, deep.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 26, 2019

In the daylight, the water was clear enough to see fathoms beneath the surface.

From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen

Ken Ono’s career as one of the world’s most prominent mathematicians has taken him to places that he never could have fathomed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025

Where this has led could be fathomed at the Ojai Festival in June.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2025

"We never fathomed it would be this catastrophic and apocalyptic."

From BBC ● Jan. 14, 2025

“He did something she could have never anticipated or fathomed or predicted,” Ms. Smith said.

From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2024

But just as he fathomed the bag’s knot-shaped clasp, the apartment door swung suddenly, wondrously, wide.

From "Typical American" by Gish Jen

I truly have a hard time fathoming that.

From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2022

Now, though some of the references have become more obscure with time, it’s hard to imagine anyone not fathoming the play’s gist.

From New York Times ● May 7, 2021

They are like the proverbial worker who knows how to use a hammer and thus sees everything as a nail—not fathoming the existence of other tools.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 8, 2020

What would be as a story beyond fathoming for the second-grade class Lieberg will teach Monday back home in Helena, Mont., became something nevertheless inspiring.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2018

Forsyth repeated, in blank amazement at the sparing of his life, for unless some hidden treachery beyond his fathoming was afoot, he could not doubt that it was spared.

From The Duke Decides by Headon Hill