impossible

English

Alternative forms

• inpossible (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English impossible.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɒs.ɪ.bəl/, /ɪmˈpɒs.ə.bəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɑ.sə.bl̩/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: im‧pos‧si‧ble

Adjective

impossible (not comparable)

1. 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.

2. (colloquial, of a person) Very difficult to deal with.

   You never listen to a word I say – you're impossible!

   • 2006, Amanda Palmer (lyrics and music), “Delilah”, in Yes, Virginia..., performed by The Dresden Dolls:

     I never met a more impossible girl.

3. (mathematics, dated) imaginary

   impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers

Synonyms

• unfeasible
• nonpossible (nonstandard)
• unhappenable (rare)
• unpossible (rare)

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "not able to be done or happen"): possible, inevitable

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

impossible (plural impossibles)

1. 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.

2. 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

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)

Adjective

impossible m or f (masculine and feminine plural impossibles)

1. impossible

   Antonym: possible

Derived terms

• impossiblement

Related terms

• impossibilitat

Further reading

• “impossible” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “impossible”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “impossible” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “impossible” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

From im- +‎ possible.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.pɔ.sibl/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

impossible (plural impossibles)

1. impossible

Derived terms

• à cœur vaillant rien d’impossible
• à l’impossible nul n’est tenu
• faire l’impossible
• impossible n’est pas français
• impossiblement

Further reading

• “impossible”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• inpossible, impossybel

Etymology

From Old French impossible, from Latin impossibilis, from in- (“not”) + possibilis (“possible”).

Adjective

impossible

1. 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

2. 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)

1. 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!

2. 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)

1. impossible