Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Incurable / untreatable: Describes a disease, illness, or medical condition that is very difficult or impossible to cure or treat effectively.
   • Ungovernable / intractable: Describes a person (often a child), behavior, or situation that is very difficult to manage, control, or reform; stubbornly disobedient.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Các bác sĩ đang đối mặt với một căn bệnh nan trị. (Doctors are facing an incurable disease.)
  • Đó là một vấn đề xã hội nan trị. (That is an intractable social problem.)
  • Cô giáo cảm thấy bất lực với cậu học sinh nan trị. (The teacher felt helpless with the ungovernable student.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is often used in formal or serious contexts, such as medicine, psychology, sociology, and education, to emphasize extreme difficulty and resistance to solutions.
• It can be applied metaphorically to abstract issues like economic crises or political conflicts that seem to have no solution.

Variants and Related Words

• Nan y (adj): Another formal term meaning "incurable" or "terminal," used almost exclusively for severe, untreatable diseases.
  • Bệnh nhân được chẩn đoán mắc chứng bệnh nan y. (The patient was diagnosed with a terminal illness.)

Synonyms

• Incurable: (for diseases) not able to be cured.
• Intractable: (for problems/people) hard to control or deal with.
• Refractory: resistant to treatment or control.
• Ungovernable: impossible to control or govern.

Related Idioms

• Bệnh nan y: An incurable/terminal disease. This is a common collocation.
  • Sự ra đi của ông ấy do một căn bệnh nan y. (His passing was due to an incurable disease.)
• Trẻ hư nan trị: A deeply spoiled or incorrigible child.
  • Những đứa trẻ hư nan trị thường cần sự can thiệp đặc biệt. (Incorrigible children often need special intervention.)