impossible
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English impossible, equivalent to im- + possible.
Pronunciation
Adjective
impossible (not comparable)
- 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.
- (colloquial, of a person) Very difficult to deal with.
- You never listen to a word I say – you're impossible!
- 2006, Amanda Palmer (lyrics and music), “Delilah”, in Yes, Virginia..., performed by The Dresden Dolls:
- I never met a more impossible girl.
- (mathematics, dated) imaginary
- impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers
Synonyms
- unfeasible
- nonpossible (nonstandard)
- unhappenable (rare)
- unpossible (rare)
Antonyms
- (antonym(s) of “not able to be done or happen”): possible, inevitable
Derived terms
Translations
not able to be done
|
very difficult to deal with
|
never happening
|
Noun
impossible (plural impossibles)
- 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.
- A skateboard trick consisting of a backflip performed in midair.
Translations
an impossibility
|
Catalan
Etymology
Inherited or borrowed from Latin impossibilis. By surface analysis, im- + possible.
Pronunciation
Adjective
impossible m or f (masculine and feminine plural impossibles)
- impossible
- Antonym: possible
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
- “impossible” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “impossible”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
- “impossible” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “impossible” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
French
Etymology
Pronunciation
Adjective
impossible (plural impossibles)
- 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).
- unbearable
- Synonym: insupportable
- Cet enfant est impossible ! ― This kid is unbearable!
Derived terms
Noun
impossible m (uncountable)
- the impossible
- promettre l’impossible ― to promise the earth
- demander l'impossible ― to ask the impossible
- faire l’impossible ― to do the impossible
- à l’impossible nul n’est tenu ― nobody can be expected to achieve the impossible
Further reading
- “impossible”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old French impossible, from Latin impossibilis, from in- (“not”) + possibilis (“possible”).
Adjective
impossible
- Impossible: not able to be done.
- 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Frankeleyns 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 lvii, recto, column 1:
- Madame (ȹ he) thys were impoſſible / Then mote I dye on ſodayne death hoꝛrible
- "Madame," he said, "This is impossible! Then I must die a sudden and horrible death
- 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]
- 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 […]
Noun
impossible (plural impossibles)
- 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!
- 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
Adjective
impossible m or f (plural impossibles)
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