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

• inconceivably adverb
• inconceivability noun
• inconceivableness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of inconceivable¹

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

Example Sentences

While there are safeguards, anyone from a well-meaning loved one to a malicious scam artist can create fake versions of you that would have been inconceivable a few years ago.

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

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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.

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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.

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Related Words

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