Impossible definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (15)

American Heritage Dictionary (4)

adjective Incapable of having existence or of occurring.
adjective Not capable of being accomplished: an impossible goal.
adjective Unacceptable; intolerable: impossible behavior.

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Century Dictionary (5)

Not possible; non-existent or false by necessity. Beyond the strength or power of the agent. Not possible from the nature of things; contrary to a general principle or law of nature or of thought; that not only is not, and will not exist or happen, under actual circumstances, but would not be under any circumstances, within certain limits. (See possible.) The modes of specializing these limits constitute the differences between the variations of the meaning of the word, which are often distinguished by means of adverbs applied to the adjective impossible, or of the corresponding adjectives applied to the abstract noun impossibility. If the limits are the widest possible, so that no change either in the facts or laws of the universe could make the object spoken of real, the latter is said to be logically impossible: as A that is not A. So Berkeley maintains that a thing not thought of is logically impossible. If the principles of mathematics would have to be changed to make the object real, it is mathematically impossible: thus, it is mathematically impossible to turn a closed bag inside out; but if space had four dimensions, this could be done. It is in this sense that imaginaries are sometimes termed impossible quantities. By modern mathematicians mathematical impossibility is generally regarded as a higher grade of physical impossibility. If no change of special facts without new laws of nature would suffice to realize the object, it is said to be physically impossible: as a perpetual motion. But in a second sense this phrase means beyond the strength or physical resources of the agent, no matter what efforts he might make: thus, it is physically impossible for the Portuguese to overrun and conquer Africa. A supposed action utterly inconsistent with the moral character of the agent is said to be morally impossible. This phrase is also used to mean ‘extremely improbable’: thus, for a pitched coin to turn up heads and toils alternately for a hundred throws is morally impossible. With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. Mat. xix. 26. It is impossible that any man should feel for a fortress on a remote frontier as he feeis for his own house. Macaulay, History. Of what contraries consists a man! Of what impossible mixtures! vice and virtue. Chapman, Byron's Tragedy, v. 1. Consciousness itself is impossible apart from limit. Veitch, Introd. to Descartes's Method, p. clv.
In law, in a stricter sense, prevented only by the act of God or a public enemy. Whatever a person binds himself by contract to do, if not absurd, is not regarded as impossible in this sense, if it might be accomplished by human means, these obstacles only excepted; and his practical inability is not deemed to render performance impossible.
Excessively odd; not to have been imagined; such as would not have been thought possible: as, she is a most impossible person; he wears an impossible hat. [An affected French use.] Is there a cupola ship changed to a broadsider, or an unserviceable three-decker converted into an impossible frigate, without costing the nation the charge of many Viceroys? Blackwood's Mag., XCVI. 605.

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Do not deceive your customer into believing they can accomplish the impossible, or that the impossible is achievable.
Nobody said a word, but everyone knew by now that the impossible was about to happen: the astrogator was preparing to go into battle with his own Cyclops. — Stanislaw Lem - The Invincible
"They helped me see the impossible is actually possible." — coloradoan.com - Local News
I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible -- impossible! — The Jawa Report
It would be out of the question, for example, to string telephone wires through densely wooded sections and to the tops of high mountains, and even if the impossible could be accomplished the expense of keeping such lines in proper repair would be so great that no one could afford to shoulder it. — Walter and the Wireless

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difficult · absurd · incredible · possible · new

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, from Old French, from Latin impossibilis : in-, not; see in-¹ + possibilis, possible; see possible.

Century Dictionary (1)

from Middle English impossible, inpossible, from Old French (also F.) impossible = Provencal impossible, inpossible = Spanish imposible = Portuguese impossivel = Italian impossibile, from Latin impossibilis, inpossibilis, not possible, from in- privative + possibilis, possible: see possible.

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