improbabilityn.
/ɪmprɒbəˈbɪlɪti/ a. The quality of being improbable; unlikelihood.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > improbability, unlikeliness > [noun]
unlikelihood?1470
unlikeliness?1560
implausibility1592
improbability1598
dislikelihood1823
inverisimilitudea1834
1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Improb[ab]ilita, improbabilitie.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary ii. 245 The improbabilitie of their comming.
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding iv. xv. 332 But there [are] degrees..from the very neighbourhood of Certainty and Evidence, quite down to Improbability and Unlikeliness, even to the Confines of Impossibility.
1749 Acct. Voy. for Discov. North-west Passage II. 332 The sending a Person over Land, carries not the least Air of Improbability with it.
1862 Heurtley in Repl. to Ess. & Rev. 144 There is no longer any antecedent improbability to be overcome.
b. with an and plural. An instance of this; an improbable circumstance; something unlikely.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > improbability, unlikeliness > [noun] > instance of
unlikelihooda1552
improbability1611
1611 T. Coryate Crudities sig. K2 It is a meere improbability, yea and an impossibility that this should be the true Serpent.
1614 Bp. J. Hall Contempl. II. O.T. v. 17 It is the praise of omnipotencie to worke by improbabilities.
1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 76 Which is to add another Improbability to all that have gone before.
1876 J. B. Mozley Serm. preached Univ. of Oxf. v. 111 A universal empire..is..a physical improbability.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1899; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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