impossibility

[im-pos-uh-bil-i-tee, im-pos-]

noun

plural

impossibilities 

1. condition or quality of being impossible.

2. something impossible.

impossibility

/ ɪmˌpɒsəˈbɪlɪtɪ, ˌɪmpɒs- /

noun

1. the state or quality of being impossible

2. something that is impossible

Word History and Origins

Origin of impossibility¹

1350–1400; Middle English impossibilite < Late Latin impossibilitās. See im- ², possibility

Example Sentences

To Andrew Friedman, something like this was a virtual impossibility.

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Their famously contentious relationship made an Oasis reunion seem like an impossibility, until it wasn’t.

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At one point, she says, the magnitude of the task left her in "utter despair" and "overcome by a feeling of sheer impossibility".

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His 16-year-old, he added, hoped to study aeronautics — an impossibility in Syria.

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Several accounts pointed to the impossibility of “negative numbers” for drug prices, along with the idea of “getting paid to take drugs.”

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Related Words

• futility