implausible
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of implausible
Explanation
Something that's implausible is farfetched or unlikely. If it's 3 pm and you still have to study for three exams and write an essay before midnight, it’s implausible that you’ll also have time to watch a movie. The adjective implausible breaks down into im, meaning “not,” and plausible, meaning "likely." So it simply means "not likely." Implausible ideas or stories usually get high marks for creativity, but they're just too crazy to be believable. But as philosopher René Descartes noted, “One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.”
Vocabulary lists containing implausible
Grade 9, List 6
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The Namesake
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Summer of the Mariposas
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Implausible horror movies ask you to buy that a curse can be broken, a killer bested, nightmares tidied into a neat resolution.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 7, 2025
Implausible plot points — particularly a revelation concerning how Patoff convinces CEOs to sign on with him — rankle less when the “solution” to the mystery isn’t the show’s sole focus.
From Washington Post • Feb. 25, 2023
The lesson of the Auslese experience was clear: Implausible combinations can be good if you have the opportunity to see for yourself.
From New York Times • May 19, 2022
Implausible as it may seem, holiday accommodation in rural England isn't limited to twee little cottages, somber stately homes and drafty old castles with terrible plumbing.
From Time • Mar. 10, 2011
Implausible as that last exercise in self-reliance may sound, just such a project is in the works a mile high in California's coastal mountains.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
