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.
Scientists have already acknowledged that this scenario has become implausible based on recent trends in renewable energy, climate policies and actual greenhouse gas emissions, and planned to retire RCP8.5 from the next international climate report.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
Some U.S. officials thought the alleged plot was impractical, implausible, even impossible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
When the skin has collapsed into your palm like a deflated balloon, you lift the box grater and discover an almost implausible amount of ruby pulp underneath it.
From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026
It’s not the most likely scenario, but it’s not totally implausible either.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
An ombudsman would scan the news stories, research whatever statistics are mentioned, try to see that they are at least internally consistent, and probe most carefully into a priori implausible claims.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
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.
