impossible
Other forms: impossibles
Something that's impossible can't be done. If you want to stop eating donuts but you just can't, you might say it's impossible.
If it's impossible, it cannot happen, or it doesn't exist. You might wish you could bring Abraham Lincoln back to life for a day so he could come to tea, but that's impossible. People use the word impossible to mean "out of reach" or "too hard to achieve." A terrible situation can be impossible, and so can a person who refuses to compromise or seems intent on making things difficult for everyone else.
Definitions of impossible
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not capable of occurring or being accomplished or dealt with“an impossible dream”“an impossible situation”
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Synonyms:
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hopeless
without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success
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hopeless
certain to fail
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impracticable, infeasible, unfeasible, unworkable
not capable of being carried out or put into practice
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out
not worth considering as a possibility
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unachievable, unattainable, undoable, unrealizable
impossible to achieve
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impractical
not practical; not workable or not given to practical matters
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unrealistic
not realistic
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insurmountable, unsurmountable
not capable of being surmounted or overcome
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unthinkable
incapable of being conceived or considered
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Antonyms:
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possible
capable of happening or existing
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likely
having a good chance of being the case or of coming about
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accomplishable, achievable, doable, manageable, realizable
capable of existing or taking place or proving true; possible to do
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affirmable, assertable
capable of being affirmed or asserted
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attainable, come-at-able
capable of being attained or accomplished
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contingent
possible but not certain to occur
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executable, feasible, practicable, viable, workable
capable of being done with means at hand and circumstances as they are
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mathematical
statistically possible though highly improbable
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practical
concerned with actual use or practice
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realistic
aware or expressing awareness of things as they really are
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thinkable
capable of being conceived or imagined or considered
- show more antonyms...
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hopeless
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totally unlikely
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synonyms:
inconceivable, out of the question, unimaginable
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unthinkable
incapable of being conceived or considered
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unthinkable
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something that cannot be done“his assignment verged on the impossible”
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type of:
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impossibility, impossible action
an alternative that is not available
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impossibility, impossible action
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extremely unpleasant or annoying (of persons or their behavior)“impossible behavior”
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synonyms:
insufferable, unacceptable, unsufferable
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intolerable, unbearable, unendurable
incapable of being put up with
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intolerable, unbearable, unendurable
Pronunciation
US
/ɪmˈpɑsəbəl/
UK
/ɪmˈpɒsɪbəl/
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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘impossible'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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