Wiktionary

impossible

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English impossible.

Pronunciation

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  • (UK) IPA(key): /ɪmˈpɒs.ɪ.bəl/, /ɪmˈpɒs.ə.bəl/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ɪmˈpɑ.sə.bl̩/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: im‧pos‧si‧ble

Adjective

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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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      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!
  3. (mathematics, dated) imaginary
    impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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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

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Catalan

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Etymology

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Inherited or borrowed from Latin impossibilis. By surface analysis, im- +‎ possible.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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impossible m or f (masculine and feminine plural impossibles)

  1. impossible
    Antonym: possible

Derived terms

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Further reading

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French

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Etymology

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From im- +‎ possible.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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impossible (plural impossibles)

  1. impossible
    Il est impossible que Dieu mente.
    It is impossible for God to lie.
    • 1910, Alphonse de Châteaubriant, chapter 1, in Monsieur des Lourdines:
      Impossible de rencontrer un homme mieux assorti à son habitat que ne l’était ce petit campagnard à son vieux château.
      Impossible to meet a man better suited to his habitat than this little countryman in his old chateau.
    • 1986, Philippe Descola, La nature domestique: symbolisme et praxis dans l’écologie des Achuar, Paris: Maison des sciences de l’Homme & Fondation Singer-Polignac, page 171:
      Dans le Nord-Ouest amazonien, par exemple, environ un siècle après l’abattis, il devient à peu près impossible à un botaniste professionnel de distinguer la végétation secondaire de la forêt primaire environnante (Sastre 1975).
      In the Amazonian Northwest, for example, around a century after the swidden, it becomes almost impossible for a professional botanist to distinguish the secondary vegetation from the surrounding primary forest (Sastre 1975).
  2. unbearable
    Synonym: insupportable
    Cet enfant est impossible !
    This kid is unbearable!

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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

Adjective

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impossible

  1. Impossible: not able to be done.
  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 […]
      [Translation from KJV, Wisdom of Solomon 11:17–18]

Noun

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impossible (plural impossibles)

  1. An act which cannot be accomplished.
    • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Sompners Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [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 [he's had]! Who ever heard of such a thing before now? To every man equally? Tell me how! It is impossible, it may not be!
      [The impossible act the lord references is to divide a fart into 12 parts]
  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

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Adjective

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impossible m or f (plural impossibles)

  1. impossible
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