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impossible. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English impossible.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ɪmˈpɒs.ɪ.bəl/, /ɪmˈpɒs.ə.bəl/
- (US) IPA(key): /ɪmˈpɑ.sə.bl̩/
- Hyphenation: im‧pos‧si‧ble
Adjective
impossible (not comparable)
- Not possible; not able to be done or happen.
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :Antonio: What impossible matter will he make easy next?
Sebastian: I think he will carry this island home in his pocket and give it his son for an apple.
Antonio : And sowing the kernels of it in the sea bring forth more islands.
1787, “The History of Europe”, in The Annual Register, or A View of the History, Politics, and Literature, for the Years 1784 and 1785, volume XXVII, London: Printed by J[ames] Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, →OCLC, chapter VIII, page 134, column 1:It was impoſſible that the queen of France [Marie Antoinette] ſhould not be deeply affected by a conteſt, which ſo cloſely involved her neareſt and deareſt connections, and threatened ſo immediate and perhaps irreparable a breach of the harmony and friendſhip ſubſiſting between them.
1951, Alice in Wonderland, Walt Disney Productions; quoted in Jabberwocky, volumes 1–2, The Lewis Carroll Society, 1969, page 9:ALICE: I'm looking for a White Rabbit.... So if you don't mind. (Alice looks through the key hole) There he is - I simply must get through
DOORKNOB: Sorry, you're much too big. Simply impassable.
ALICE: You mean impossible.
DOORKNOB: No, IMPASSABLE - NOTHING'S IMPOSSIBLE.
- 13 March 1962, John F. Kennedy, speech at the White House
- Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to memorize 20,000 consecutive numbers.
Sarah thinks that nothing is impossible because things can always somehow happen.
- (colloquial, of a person) Very difficult to deal with.
You never listen to a word I say – you're impossible!
- (mathematics, dated) imaginary
impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
not able to be done
- Albanian: please add this translation if you can
- Arabic: مُسْتَحِيل (mustaḥīl)
- Egyptian Arabic: محال (muḥāl)
- Armenian: անհնար (hy) (anhnar)
- Asturian: imposible
- Azerbaijani: qeyri-mümkün, mümkünsüz, həyata keçirilməz, yerinə yetirilməz
- Belarusian: немагчы́мы (njemahčýmy), немажлі́вы (njemažlívy)
- Bulgarian: невъзмо́жен (bg) (nevǎzmóžen)
- Burmese: please add this translation if you can
- Catalan: impossible (ca)
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 冇可能嘅 (mou5 ho2 nang4 ge3)
- Mandarin: 不可能的 (bù kěnéng de)
- Czech: nemožný (cs) m
- Danish: umuligt
- Dutch: onmogelijk (nl)
- Esperanto: neebla
- Estonian: võimatu
- Finnish: mahdoton (fi)
- French: impossible (fr)
- Galician: imposible (gl), imposíbel (gl)
- Georgian: შეუძლებელი (šeuʒlebeli)
- German: unmöglich (de)
- Greek: ακατόρθωτος (el) (akatórthotos)
- Ancient: ἀδύνατος m (adúnatos)
- Hebrew: בלתי־אפשרי m (biltí-efsharí)
- Hindi: असंभव (hi) (asambhav) or असम्भव (hi) (asambhav), नामुमकिन (hi) (nāmumkin), अनहोनी (hi) (anhonī)
- Hungarian: lehetetlen (hu)
- Icelandic: ómögulegur (is)
- Ido: neposibla (io)
- Interlingua: impossibile
- Italian: impossibile (it)
- Japanese: 不可能な (ja) (fukanō na), 無理な (ja) (muri na)
- Khmer: មិនអាចទៅរួច (mɨn ʼaac tɨw ruəc)
- Korean: 불가능하다 (ko) (bulganeunghada)
- Kyrgyz: мүмкүнсүз (mümkünsüz)
- Latvian: neiespējams m, neiespējama f
- Lithuanian: neįmanoma
- Macedonian: невозможен (nevozmožen)
- Malay: mustahil (ms)
- Malayalam: അസാധ്യ (ml) (asādhya)
- Manx: neuchredjallagh
- Maori: tē-taea
- Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
- Nepali: असम्भव (ne) (asambhav)
- Norman: împôssibl'ye m or f
- Northern Sami: veadjemeahttun
- Norwegian: umulig (no)
- Old English: unmihtlīċ
- Persian: please add this translation if you can
- Plautdietsch: ommäajlich
- Polish: niemożliwy (pl)
- Portuguese: impossível (pt)
- Romanian: imposibil (ro)
- Romansch: nunpussaivel
- Russian: невозмо́жный (ru) (nevozmóžnyj), невыполнимый (ru) (nevypolnimyj), неосуществи́мый (ru) (neosuščestvímyj)
- Scottish Gaelic: do-dhèanta
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: немогућ
- Roman: nȅmogūć
- Slovak: nemožný
- Slovene: nemogoč (sl) m, nemogoča f, nemogoče n
- Spanish: imposible (es)
- Swedish: omöjlig (sv), ogörlig, orealiserbar
- Tagalog: di-sapala
- Tarifit: muḥar m
- Thai: เป็นไปไม่ได้
- Turkish: olanaksız (tr), imkânsız (tr)
- Ukrainian: неможли́вий (nemožlývyj)
- Urdu: اسمبھو (asambhav), ناممکن (nāmumkin), ان ہونی (an honī)
- Vietnamese: không thể (vi)
- Welsh: amhosibl (cy)
|
very difficult to deal with
- Asturian: imposible, insoportable
- Azerbaijani: qeyri-mümkün
- Bulgarian: неосъществим (bg) (neosǎštestvim), неизпълним (bg) (neizpǎlnim)
- Catalan: impossible (ca), insuportable
- Czech: nemožný (cs) m
- Danish: umulig (da)
- Finnish: mahdoton (fi), kauhea (fi), kamala (fi)
- French: insupportable (fr), impossible (fr)
- German: unmöglich (de)
- Greek: αδύνατο (el) (adýnato), αφόρητο (el) (afórito), απειλητικό (el) (apeilitikó), ανίσχυρο (el) (aníschyro), ανέφικτο (el) (anéfikto)
- Hungarian: lehetetlen (hu), nehéz (hu)
- Interlingua: insupportabile
- Italian: insopportabile (it), impossibile (it)
- Portuguese: impossível (pt), insuportável (pt)
- Russian: нереальный (ru) (nerealʹnyj), невозмо́жный (ru) (nevozmóžnyj), невыполнимый (ru) (nevypolnimyj)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Roman: nȅmogūć, nepodnòšljiv (sh), neizdr̀živ (sh)
- Slovene: nemogoč (sl) m, nemogoča f, nemogoče n
- Spanish: insoportable (es)
- Swedish: omöjlig (sv)
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Noun
impossible (plural impossibles)
- An impossibility.
1888 November, Joseph Le Conte, “The Problem of a Flying-Machine”, in The Popular Science Monthly, volume 34, page 70:In fact, to most people, the real impossibles do not seem impossible, or wonderful, or even difficult at all.
1890, Jean Kate Ludlum, At Brown's: An Adirondack Story, page 15:“Ye can't expect impossibles, and Jim hadn't no idee o' takin' yer trunk along of him in ther buggy when he kem hyar this mornin'.
1903, Jonathan Brierley, Problems of Living, page 16:For one thing, the Gospel's moral impossibles appear, in this light, not as an objection to Christianity, but as one of its most striking evidences.
1911, J. H. Jowett, “Turning Back”, in Homiletic Review, volume 61, page 392:Yes, the church lives for impossibles, and she lives by impossibles, and if she shrinks from impossibles her own vigor will shrink and die.
2000, Kenneth D. Keith, Robert L. Schalock, Cross-cultural Perspectives on Quality of Life, page 292:Aristotle (1952), in his Nicomachean Ethics, described the relation between will and choice: a Choice cannot relate to impossibles, and if anyone said he chose them he would be thought silly;
2010, The Journal of Parliamentary Information - Volume 56, page 20:Dreams are made out of impossibles. We cannot reach the impossibles by using the analytical minds which are trained to deal with hard information which is currently available.
- A skateboard trick consisting of a backflip performed in midair.
Translations
Catalan
Etymology
Inherited or borrowed from Latin impossibilis. By surface analysis, im- + possible.
Pronunciation
Adjective
impossible m or f (masculine and feminine plural impossibles)
- impossible
- Antonym: possible
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
French
Etymology
From im- + possible.
Pronunciation
Adjective
impossible (plural impossibles)
- impossible
Derived terms
Further reading
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old French impossible, from Latin impossibilis, from in- (“not”) + possibilis (“possible”).
Adjective
impossible
- Impossible: not able to be done.
1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Frankeleyns Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, ,
→OCLC; republished in [
William Thynne], editor,
The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, ,
:
[
Richard Grafton for]
Iohn Reynes ,
1542,
→OCLC,
folio lvii, recto, column 1:
Madame (ȹ he) thys were impoſſible / Then mote I dye on ſodayne death hoꝛrible- "Madame," he said, "This is impossible! Then I must die a sudden and horrible death
- Incapable (of doing something)
c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, , volume III, Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, →OCLC, Wisdom XI:18–19, page 10472, column 1:Forsothe not inpossible was thin almyȝti hond, that made the roundnesse of erthis of mater vnseen, to senden in to them a multitude of beres, or hardi leouns, or of new kinde vnknowen bestes- For thy Almighty hand, that made the world of matter without form, wanted not means to send among them a multitude of bears or fierce lions, / Or unknown wild beasts
Noun
impossible (plural impossibles)
- An act which cannot be accomplished.
1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Sompners Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, ,
→OCLC; republished in [
William Thynne], editor,
The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, ,
:
[
Richard Grafton for]
Iohn Reynes ,
1542,
→OCLC,
folio xlvii, verso, column 2:
Lo ſyꝛs (ȹ the loꝛde) with harde grace / Who euer hearde of ſuch a thynge oꝛ nowe? / To Euery man ylyke tell me howe? / It is an impoſſyble, it may not be- "Lo, sirs," said the lord, "what bad luck ! Who ever heard of such a thing before now? To every man equally? Tell me how! It is impossible, it may not be!
- A logical impossibility: a thing which cannot exist, or is a logical self-contradiction
1381–1384, Thomas Usk, “Book II Chapter 4”, in Gary W. Shawver, editor, Testament of Love (Toronto Medieval Texts and Translations), number 13, University of Toronto Press, published 2002, →ISBN, page 60:God forbyd that nyse unthrifty though shulde come in thy mynde thy wyttes to trouble, sythen everything in comyng is contyngent. Wherfore, make no more thy proposycion by an impossyble.- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Middle French
Adjective
impossible m or f (plural impossibles)
- impossible