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IMPOSSIBLE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Something that cannot be done
Example:
his assignment verged on the impossible
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("impossible" is a kind of...):
impossibility; impossible action (an alternative that is not available)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not capable of occurring or being accomplished or dealt with
Example:
an impossible situation
Classified under:
Similar:
hopeless (certain to fail)
impracticable; infeasible; unfeasible; unworkable (not capable of being carried out or put into practice)
out (not worth considering as a possibility)
unachievable; unattainable; undoable; unrealizable (impossible to achieve)
Also:
hopeless (without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success)
impractical (not practical; not workable or not given to practical matters)
unrealistic (not realistic)
insurmountable; unsurmountable (not capable of being surmounted or overcome)
unthinkable (incapable of being conceived or considered)
Attribute:
possibility; possibleness (capability of existing or happening or being true)
Antonym:
possible (capable of happening or existing)
Derivation:
impossibility; impossibleness (incapability of existing or occurring)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Totally unlikely
Synonyms:
impossible; inconceivable; out of the question; unimaginable
Classified under:
Similar:
unthinkable (incapable of being conceived or considered)
Derivation:
impossibleness (incapability of existing or occurring)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(used of persons or their behavior) not acceptable or reasonable
Example:
impossible behavior
Synonyms:
impossible; unacceptable
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
intolerable; unbearable; unendurable (incapable of being tolerated or endured)
Context examples:
As that was impossible, she did her best to seem gay, and being rather excited, she succeeded so well that no one dreamed what an effort she was making.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Hearing disorders make it hard, but not impossible, to hear.
(Hearing Disorders and Deafness, NIH: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders)
Captain Wentworth believed it impossible for man to be more attached to woman than poor Benwick had been to Fanny Harville, or to be more deeply afflicted under the dreadful change.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
I must tell you that he is a perfectly impossible person—absolutely impossible.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I had heard it—where, or whence, for ever impossible to know!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossible to fancy that the body was in a natural position.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
The sun rose; I heard the voices of men and knew that it was impossible to return to my retreat during that day.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
“Very well, then, we wish to see his rooms,” said the lawyer; and when the woman began to declare it was impossible, “I had better tell you who this person is,” he added.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
It was impossible to say to that sweet little surprised face, otherwise than lightly and playfully, that we must work to live.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It was almost impossible to believe that the things which we had seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears were living truths.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
