Unalienable means impossible to take away or give up. When something is unalienable, it belongs to you so fundamentally that no one can remove it, and you cannot surrender it even if you wanted to.

The word appears most famously in the Declaration of Independence, which states that all people have certain “unalienable rights” including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Founders chose this word carefully: they meant these rights aren't granted by kings or governments. Instead, these rights exist simply because you're human. A government might try to violate them, but it cannot actually erase them, any more than it could erase gravity.

Think of it this way: your bicycle is not unalienable because someone could steal it or you could sell it. But your right to be treated fairly, to think your own thoughts, or to practice your religion? Those are unalienable. Even if someone prevented you from exercising those rights, the rights themselves would still exist.

You might also see the spelling inalienable, which means exactly the same thing. Both versions appear in historical documents, but the Declaration uses “unalienable.”