Verb (used with object) : to ascertain the facts.    From Dictionary.com. 

Or is the answer to that question completely unascertainable and unknowable?.    From Wordnik.com.  [On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...] Reference

That therefore, which is called the conduct of the good is extremely unascertainable.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12] Reference

Its exact amount is unascertainable, for neither Government kept adequate statistics before 1820.    From Wordnik.com.  [Great Britain and the American Civil War] Reference

As it was, I was down half a sovereign or so over the transaction, having given him the benefit of the doubt over two measly little gold coins of unascertainable value.    From Wordnik.com.  [Pan-Islam] Reference

We are left with a situation in which, simply put, Emma and Frank affect an unknown portion of the party in unknown ways by acting nonsensically for unknown (or unascertainable) reasons.    From Wordnik.com.  [Unanswerable Gallantry and Thick-Headed Nonsense: Rereading Box Hill] Reference

In the light of these facts, what meaning can be attached to the statement that proportional systems only secure proportional representation in a limited and generally unascertainable degree?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Proportional Representation A Study in Methods of Election] Reference

'Tis as if all the rains of heaven had been concentrated upon all the marls and clays of earth, and all the sticky stratum plastered down in a wiggling line of unascertainable length and breadth!.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 19, May, 1859] Reference

Nothing in the First Amendment requires that a jury must consider hypothetical and unascertainable “national standards” when attempting to determine whether certain materials are obscene as a matter of fact.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Volokh Conspiracy » Ninth Circuit Adopts National Standard for Internet Obscenity] Reference

Nothing in the First Amendment requires that a jury must consider hypothetical and unascertainable “national standards” when attempting to determine whether certain materials are obscene as a matter of fact.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Volokh Conspiracy » Ninth Circuit Adopts National Standard for Internet Obscenity] Reference

All such states again as exist with stupefication (of the senses, the mind or the understanding) whose cause is unascertainable, and which are incomprehensible (by either reasons or inward light), should be known as ascribable to the action of.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12] Reference

There were (1) a district Caledonia, of which the southern border must have been on or near the isthmus between the Clyde and the Forth, (2) a Caledonian Forest (possibly in Perthshire), and (3) a tribe of Caledones or Calidones, named by the geographer Ptolemy as living within boundaries which are now unascertainable.    From Wordnik.com.  [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary"] Reference

It's pretty preposterous, though, since -- putting aside the larger problem of turnout for Obama being suppressed by the knowledge that the election was unsanctioned -- there are presumably a fair, but unascertainable number of people who voted for Clinton who might have voted for Obama (or Edwards, or Richardson) had they been on the ballot.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hillary Supporter Lanny Davis Suggests Proposals For Florida And Michigan] Reference

Down to some unascertainable date (possibly about 1,500 B.C.).    From Wordnik.com.  [The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability] Reference

There was first the Procession of the Maestranza, of unascertainable antiquity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Diversions in Sicily] Reference

Mosaic Law was ever in full working order is disputed, probably unascertainable.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize] Reference

The back yard is unfenced, and extends to the skyline and an unascertainable bit beyond.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Story of Jees Uck] Reference

Otherwise, you could go forward with a collective action even after counsel has been found inadequate, and the class has been deemed unascertainable.    From Wordnik.com.  [The UCL Practitioner] Reference

For whether increased spending on consumption leads in time to increased investment is dependent on the unascertainable profit expectations of entrepreneurs.    From Wordnik.com.  [Mises Dailies] Reference

China Proper some unascertainable number between thirteen and a hundred and fifty: mostly small and insignificant, but mostly, too, full of schemes and ambitions.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Crest-Wave of Evolution A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19] Reference

Mr. Schiller applies the analogy to beliefs, and proposes the name of 'Humanism' for the doctrine that to an unascertainable extent our truths are man-made products too.    From Wordnik.com.  [Pragmatism] Reference

The Silver Surfer (voice of Larry Fishburne) who intends, for some unascertainable reason, to destroy much of the Earth - just as he obliterated dozens of planets before it.    From Wordnik.com.  [WN.com - Articles related to PDEA warns: Hoarding cocaine to draw 'life' in jail] Reference

In days of yore battles were often fought in or near what seem to us mere villages; little places whose very names are uncertain and exact site unascertainable were the centres of strife.    From Wordnik.com.  [Round About a Great Estate] Reference

But this terror of contravening an unascertained and unascertainable will, cannot coexist with reflection: it disappears with civilization, and can no more be reproduced than the fear of ghosts after childhood.    From Wordnik.com.  [Uncollected Prose] Reference

They are devoted to the dogma that if they can change the body (and what is here said of the body applies equally to the mind) in the direction they wish, this change will in some unascertainable way be reproduced in the next generation.    From Wordnik.com.  [Applied Eugenics] Reference

He thinks of energy as an engineer; he declares the body-cell is a storage battery; he believes that the athlete by performing work stores up energy in his body (in some mysterious and unascertainable way) just as the clock stores up energy when it is wound.    From Wordnik.com.  [Applied Eugenics] Reference

The peculiar habits of the class in this respect are commonly set down to some kind of an ill-defined moral deficiency with which this class is credited, or to a morally deleterious influence which their occupation is supposed to exert, in some unascertainable way, upon the men employed in it.    From Wordnik.com.  [The theory of the leisure class; an economic study of institutions] Reference

A morally deleterious influence which their occupation is supposed to exert, in some unascertainable way, upon the men employed in it.    From Wordnik.com.  [Theory of the Leisure Class] Reference

Our motives may be questioned, the practicability of the objectives which we have set ourselves may be doubted, the length of time which must elapse before our aims are realised may be unascertainable, but our faith in ourselves and in our destiny need not be shaken on that account.    From Wordnik.com.  [Address by Professor Z. K. Matthews] Reference

Certainly not unascertainable.    From Wordnik.com.  [E-nough!] Reference

A tiger; its form itself is unascertainable.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 Books 4, 5, 6 and 7] Reference

18,200, exclusive of an unascertainable number, destitute of priests, in the.    From Wordnik.com.  [A History of American Christianity] Reference