incapable of being done, undertaken, or experienced incapable of occurring or happening absurd or inconceivable; unreasonable intolerable; outrageous: those children are impossible
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
im•pos•si•ble /ɪmˈpɑsəbəl/USA pronunciation
adj.
im•pos•si•bly, adv. [before an adjective or adverb]The jet shot up into the sky impossibly fast.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025- not possible:Traveling faster than the speed of light is impossible.[It + be + ~ (+ for + object) + to + verb]It's impossible (for anything) to travel faster than the speed of light.
- extremely difficult:in the impossible situation of having to increase output, cut workers, and reduce costs.
- completely impractical:an impossible plan.
- hopelessly unsuitable, undesirable, or objectionable:The kids have been impossible all day.
im•pos•si•bly, adv. [before an adjective or adverb]The jet shot up into the sky impossibly fast.
im•pos•si•ble
(im pos′ə bəl),USA pronunciation adj.
im•pos′si•ble•ness, n.
im•pos′si•bly, adv.
- not possible;
unable to be, exist, happen, etc. - unable to be done, performed, effected, etc.:an impossible assignment.
- incapable of being true, as a rumor.
- not to be done, endured, etc., with any degree of reason or propriety:an impossible situation.
- utterly impracticable:an impossible plan.
- hopelessly unsuitable, difficult, or objectionable.
- Latin impossibilis. See im-2, possible
- Middle English 1250–1300
im•pos′si•bly, adv.
- 6.See corresponding entry in Unabridged unbearable, intolerable, unmanageable.
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