impossible

An impossibility.

Adjective

  1. Not possible; not able to be done or happen.
    • 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...
    • 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...
    • 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...
  2. Very difficult to deal with.
    • You never listen to a word I say – you're impossible!
    • This humidity is impossible.
    • I never met a more impossible girl. - 2006, Amanda Palmer, “Delilah”, in Yes, Virginia..., performed by The Dresden Dolls:
  3. imaginary
    • impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers

Origin

From Middle English impossible, equivalent to im- + possible.

Forms

more impossible most impossible inpossible

Synonyms

unfeasible nonpossible unhappenable unpossible

Antonyms

possible inevitable

Derived

ask the impossible do the impossible impossibility impossible bottle impossible color impossible dip impossible dream impossible drive impossible event impossible fork impossibleness impossible pie impossible story impossible trident impossible trinity impossibly mission impossible unimpossible

Noun

  1. An impossibility.
    • In fact, to most people, the real impossibles do not seem impossible, or wonderful, or even difficult at all. - 1888 November, Joseph Le Conte, “The Problem of a Flying-Machine”, in The Popular Science Monthly, volume...
    • “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'. - 1890, Jean Kate Ludlum, At Brown's: An Adirondack Story, page 15:
    • 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. - 1903, Jonathan Brierley, Problems of Living, page 16:
  2. A skateboard trick consisting of a backflip performed in midair.

Forms

impossibles inpossible