Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Capable of happening, existing, or being true without contradicting proven facts, laws, or circumstances.
- adj. Capable of occurring or being done without offense to character, nature, or custom.
- adj. Capable of favorable development; potential: a possible site for the new capital.
- adj. Of uncertain likelihood.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- That may be; not known not to be true; not known not to be true in some hypothetical state of information. The only kind of object which in strict propriety of language can be called
possible is the truth of a proposition; and when a kind of thing is said to be possible, this is to be regarded as an elliptical expression, meaning that it is of such a general description that we do not know it does not exist. So an event or act is said to be possible, meaning that one would not know that it would not come to pass. But it is incorrect to use possible meaning practicable; possible is what may be, not what can be. A proposition is logically possible, if it would not be known not to be true by a person who should know nothing but the principles of logic and the meanings of words; physically possible, if it would not be known not to be true by one who should know all the laws of nature, but none of the particular facts; practically possible, if it were not known not to be about to be accomplished to one who should know what was in the power of the persons concerned, but not their dispositions, etc.
Wiktionary
- adj. Able but not certain to happen; not impossible.
- adj. comparable Capable of being done or achieved; feasible.
- adj. Being considered, e.g. for a position.
- n. A possible one
- n. colloquial, rare A possible choice, notably someone being considered for a position.
- n. rare A particular event that may happen.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Capable of existing or occurring, or of being conceived or thought of; able to happen; capable of being done; not contrary to the nature of things; -- sometimes used to express extreme improbability; barely able to be, or to come to pass.
WordNet 3.0
- n. something that can be done
- adj. capable of happening or existing
- n. an applicant who might be suitable
- adj. existing in possibility
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin possibilis ("possible"), from Latin posse ("to be able"); see power. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin possibilis, from posse, to be able. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“On Barack Obama and 'the art of the possible' yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'On Barack Obama and \'the art of the possible\' '; yahooBuzzArticleSummary =' Article: You hung it all out there for your latest hero, Barack Hussein Obama.”
“Just as the past tense ampliates the subject to include past as well as present supposita, modal verbs ampliate the subject to possible supposita, as do verbs such as ‘I understand’, ‘I believe’, and indeed, notes Albert of Saxony, verbal nouns ending in ‘-bile’: ‘possible’, ‘audible’, ‘credible’, ‘capable of laughter’ and so on.”
“It is certainly possible for an anxious straining ingenuity to _imagine_ such cases; and where is the rule of law, which, in the infirmity of human institutions, cannot be shown capable of occasioning _possible_ mischief and injustice?”
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 349, November, 1844
“_Si c'est possible ... si c'est possible_ ... a double door with a grille?”
“We're all hands averse to bloodshed, and we intend to work our business without it, if possible -- you understand, _if possible_!”
“So Le Mercier de la Rivière says, in 1767, that the ultimate end of society is _assurer le plus grand bonheur possible à la plus grande population possible_ (Daire's _Économistes_, p. 470).”
“That turning of the oblique globe askance, which Wesley represents as the cause of extreme heat and cold, was the very thing to _prevent_ those extremes, or to reduce them to the lowest possible point, and to secure to every part of the globe, as _far as possible_, an _equal_ amount of light and warmth.”
Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again A Life Story
“The game plan is to hit it as far as possible and as close as possible on every single hole.”
“* Leave this file running on the browsers of as many computers as possible for as long as possible*”
“It is possible, under such circumstances that a Peace Party might arise; and perhaps just _possible_ that England and France might give weight to such a Party [628]. ”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘possible’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Of -ibles, not -ables
Tricksy buggers! I've not included those where neither is favorable.
accessible, admissible, alible, apprehensible, audible, coercible, cognoscible, collapsible, collectible, combustible, comestible, compactible and 103 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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savage215's Words
pipe, yankee, knickerbocker, tennis, plasma, magma, volcano, car, truck, television, tv, word and 445 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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astrosfan's Words
pantaloons, schadenfreude, astonishing, eve, static, freeze, luscious, voluptuous, stagnant, mimic, speed, vespertillinoid and 302 more...
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List about itself
Hey, it had to be done. Now someone can do it better.
list, this, self-referential, tautology, repetitive, words, autonomous, letters, incomplete, meta, possible, text and 6 more...
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EU - What was Joao talking about in 2...
The 100 most frequent words in Joao Barroso's "State of the European Union" address in September 2011
act, adopted, already, approach, area, bank, believe, billion, bonds, built, capital, citizens and 87 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for possible.
PossibleUnderscore Underscore
Jul 26, 2009