Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Unlikely to take place or be true.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Not probable; not likely to be true; not to be expected under the circumstances of the case.
Wiktionary
- adj. Not likely to be true.
- adj. Not likely to happen.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not probable; unlikely to be true; not to be expected under the circumstances or in the usual course of events.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having a probability too low to inspire belief
- adj. too improbable to admit of belief
- adj. not likely to be true or to occur or to have occurred
Examples
“He says creating theater out of the improbable is a fundamental part of their mission.”
“The Massachusetts Democrat tells his version of the American rags to riches story, chronicling what he dubs his "improbable" rise from a broken home and poverty on the Chicago's South Side to the upper echelons of American politics.”
“I thought about the conditions necessary for life to bloom in improbable places like Cd. Juárez, Culiacán, Terlingua, East.”
“The change which I propose, is to substitute the word improbable, for miraculous.”
“All I know is that the article confused the word improbable with impossible.”
“And second, it is improbable that all the English words listed by Crowley as having come from Irish or Gaulish actually did so.”
“That looks highly improbable, which is why the chancellor will announce both tax increases and benefit cuts on Tuesday.”
“At age 27, he was defined as the improbable hero who beat the system.”
“Following a good plan of always handing on any rumour, however improbable, which is of a thoroughly cheerful nature I said, referring to a report that was current in the messes that morning, 'They say Lord”
“If the story is a strange one, he doubtless reflected, 'truth is stranger than fiction;' and if it is intrinsically and evidently improbable, that is the very reason why a poet would not have invented it.”
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 452 Volume 18, New Series, August 28, 1852
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘improbable’.
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Scaryland
white rabbit, formaldehyde, distributed world..., pathetic fallacy, candy, reality, playing people, improbable, absurd, bleep, real world, demagogic and 5 more...
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farfetched
farfetched, improbable, long shot, implausible, don't hold your b..., beggar belief, unbelievable, unlikely, inconceivable, pipe dream
wackyvorlon Not very exotic, but darned useful I say. Sep 22, 2008