inconceivable

[in-kuhn-see-vuh-buhl]

adjective

1. not conceivable; unimaginable; unthinkable

2. unbelievable; incredible.

inconceivable

/ ˌɪnkənˈsiːvəbəl /

adjective

1. incapable of being conceived, imagined, or considered

Other Word Forms

• inconceivability noun
• inconceivableness noun
• inconceivably adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of inconceivable¹

First recorded in 1625–35; in- ³ + conceivable

Example Sentences

Hocker’s coach, Ben Thomas, recalled a time when today’s surge of medalists from Europe and North America seemed inconceivable.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Amina’s sleepwalking—a concept inconceivable to the villagers, who think the town is haunted—gets her in trouble, and is here a manifestation of her “otherness” and innate resistance to the community’s rigidity.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Still, even in a movie where people are always skulking around rifling through each other’s things, his claim that he chose a drunken late night to confront Maggie about plagiarism sounds inconceivable.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

For starters, it would be almost inconceivable that the world's top football nations would not qualify for the World Cup.

Read more on BBC

"Those documents exist, they will be on file... it's inconceivable they would not have been shown concerns raised by the security services through the vetting process," he told BBC Breakfast.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• extraordinary 
• implausible 
• impossible 
• improbable 
• incredible 
• mind-boggling 
• strange 
• unbelievable 
• unheard-of 
• unimaginable 
• unthinkable