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.
To avoid the economic effects of aging altogether would require implausible and rising numbers of immigrants, Manning said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026
Lawyers for David Sullivan said Florence's account is "implausible" given the layout of his house.
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
The defendant has contended he did not realise that he had run over anyone -- a claim that another prosecutor, Marco Reinl, called utterly implausible.
From Barron's • Jun. 4, 2026
The broader biographical facts are obeyed, but “Amadeus” is fundamentally ahistorical, and sometimes implausible: It is to be trusted only as television.
From Los Angeles Times • May 8, 2026
Already it seems implausible, and yet I know I did it.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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.
