impossible

• inpossible (obsolete)

From Middle English impossible.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɒs.ɪ.bəl/, /ɪmˈpɒs.ə.bəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɑ.sə.bl̩/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: im‧pos‧si‧ble

impossible (not generally comparable, comparative more impossible, superlative most impossible)

1. Not possible; not able to be done or happen.
   • 1610-11?, Shakespeare, The Tempest, 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 874176698, 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.

   • 1865, Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

     Nothing is impossible, only impassible.

   • 13 March 1962, John F. Kennedy

     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.

2. (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.

3. (mathematics, dated) imaginary

   impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers

• nonpossible (nonstandard)
• unpossible (rare)

• (not able to be done or happen): possible, inevitable

• impossibility
• impossibly
• mission impossible

impossible (plural impossibles)

1. 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.

2. A skateboard trick consisting of a backflip performed in midair.

From Latin impossibilis, equivalent to in- +‎ possible.

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /im.puˈsi.blə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /im.poˈsi.ble/

impossible (masculine and feminine plural impossibles)

1. impossible

   Antonym: possible

• impossiblement

• impossibilitat

• “impossible” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “impossible”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
• “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.

From im- +‎ possible.

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.pɔ.sibl/

• Audio

  (file)

impossible (plural impossibles)

1. impossible

• à cœur vaillant rien d'impossible
• à l'impossible nul n'est tenu
• faire l'impossible
• impossible n'est pas français
• impossiblement

• “impossible”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Old French impossible, from Latin impossibilis, from in- (“not”) + possibilis (“possible”).

impossible

1. impossible
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Frankeleyns Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], OCLC 230972125; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, OCLC 932884868:

     Madame( {quod} he )thys were impossible

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

impossible m or f (plural impossibles)

1. impossible