incredible
If it's hard to believe and hard to wrap your head around, it just might be incredible. A hurricane in Kansas would certainly be incredible, but keeping your bedroom tidy all week counts too.
Incredible is commonplace and perhaps overused but it still fits the bill whenever life is beyond expectation. The Latin root credere means believe. Slap an in in front of that root, and something incredible is hard to believe.
Definitions of incredible
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extraordinarily good or great ; used especially as intensifiers
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synonyms:
fantastic, grand, howling, marvellous, marvelous, rattling, terrific, tremendous, wonderful, wondrous
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extraordinary
beyond what is ordinary or usual; highly unusual or exceptional or remarkable
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extraordinary
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beyond belief or understanding“at incredible speed”“the book's plot is simply incredible”
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synonyms:
unbelievable
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flimsy, unconvincing
not convincing
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astounding, dumbfounding, dumfounding
bewildering or striking dumb with wonder
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fabulous
barely credible
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improbable, marvellous, marvelous, tall
too improbable to admit of belief
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undreamed, undreamed of, undreamt, undreamt of, unimagined
not imagined even in a dream
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incredulous
not disposed or willing to believe; unbelieving
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implausible
having a quality that provokes disbelief
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unthinkable
incapable of being conceived or considered
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Antonyms:
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believable, credible
capable of being believed
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likely
within the realm of credibility
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presumptive
affording reasonable grounds for belief or acceptance
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plausible
apparently reasonable, valid, or truthful
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thinkable
capable of being conceived or imagined or considered
- show more antonyms...
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flimsy, unconvincing
Pronunciation
US
/ɪnˈkrɛdəbəl/
UK
/ɪnˈkrɛdɪbəl/
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘incredible'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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Commonly confused words
incredible / incredulous
Incredible describes something you can’t believe because it’s so right, like an incredible double rainbow. Incredulous describes how you feel when you can’t believe something because it’s so wrong, like when someone tells you leprechauns left two pots of gold.
Word Family
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