impossibleadjective
uk/ɪmˈpɒs.ə.bəl/us/ɪmˈpɑː.sə.bəl/B1 If an action or event is impossible, it cannot happen or be achieved:
It was impossible to sleep because of the noise.
It seems impossible that I could have walked by without noticing her.
He made it impossible for me to say no.
She ate three plates of spaghetti and a dessert? That's impossible. I don't believe it!
C2 An impossible situation is extremely difficult to deal with or solve:
It's an impossible situation - she's got to leave him but she can't bear losing her children.
C2 An impossible person behaves very badly or is extremely difficult to deal with:
I had to leave the job because my boss was impossible.
My niece is impossible when she's tired - you can't do anything to please her.
More examples
- It's broken into so many pieces, it'll be impossible to put it back together again .
- The signature was smudged and impossible to read.
- The ground was frozen hard and was impossible to dig.
- Finding somewhere cheap to live in the city centre is an impossible task.
- No one could have climbed that wall - it's physically impossible.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Unachievable
- be (a) no go idiom
- be on a hiding to nothing idiom
- be out of your league idiom
- cat
- elusive
- impossibly
- impracticable
- in/out of the running idiom
- infeasible
- inoperable
- league
- love
- no way idiom
- nohow
- not have a cat in hell's chance idiom
- running
- unworkable
- way
- will-o'-the-wisp
- you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear idiom
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Impossible and improbable
Complicated and difficult to do
Bad and wrong behaviour
impossibility
noun [ C or U ] uk/ɪmˌpɒs.əˈbɪl.ə.ti/us/ɪmˌpɑː.səˈbɪl.ə.t̬i/
C2
What you're asking just can't be done - it's an impossibility.
impossiblenoun [ S ]
uk/ɪmˈpɒs.ə.bəl/us/ɪmˈpɑː.sə.bəl/the impossible
something that cannot be expected to happen or exist:
She wants a man who is attractive and funny as well, which is asking the impossible in my opinion.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Impossible and improbable
- apt
- be out of the question idiom
- beggar
- beggar belief/description idiom
- castle
- dream
- fat
- fat chance idiom
- goodbye to sth idiom
- I should be so lucky! idiom
- improbable
- lucky
- million
- nailing jelly to the wall idiom
- no way idiom
- snowball
- there's no danger of that! idiom
- unlikely
- untenable
- you should be so lucky! idiom
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