imaginablyadv.
/ɪˈmadʒᵻnəbli/, /ɪˈmadʒn̩əbli/, U.S. /ᵻˈmædʒ(ə)nəbli/ In an imaginable manner, conceivably; (also) as can be imagined.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [adverb]
fantastically1526
ideally1598
imaginably1644
fancifully1809
1644 S. Rutherford Lex, Rex xliv. 464 Far lesse can it be imaginably lawfull for a King, to make away a part of his Dominions, without their consent.
1648 Scot. Mist Dispel'd 40 What can imaginably then be the meaning?
1685 R. Boyle Ess. Effects of Motion v. 61 A scarce imaginably little force may suffice to impel them.
1705 J. Groome Sinner Convicted iv. 140 Neither is there anything imaginably possible which he [sc. God] cannot do.
1798 J. T. Callender Sedgwick & Co. ii. 16 All those who lost by the continental bills were, and are, as real creditors to the treasury, as any person imaginably can be.
1859 H. Rogers Greyson Lett. cx. 503 The same may just as well be said of any other marks of apparent wisdom in any other (and imaginably) greater works of God.
1894 W. D. Howells in Cosmopolitan Mar. 568/1 A waste and ruined field..which had imaginably once been the grounds about a pleasant home.
1907 Jrnl. Philos., Psychol. & Sci. Methods 4 405 The definition of actually, as distinguished from imaginably, complete and objective truth.
1933 C. Mackenzie Lit. in my Time (1934) xxvii. 232 A great American poet like Walt Whitman, not a line of whose verse could have imaginably been written except by an American.
2007 Columbus (Georgia) Ledger-Enquirer (Nexis) 6 Mar. Columbus..had two or more schools..in the path of the storm, with imaginably devastating results.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adv.1644