Impossibility Meaning
/ɪmˌpɒsɪˈbɪliti/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounSomething that is impossible.
nounThe quality of being impossible.
Sentence Examples
Death is the possibility of the absolute impossibility of Dasein.
Climbing that steep mountain is a physical impossibility.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
None
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ of traveling faster than light is a well-known law in physics.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The sheer ____ of finishing the work on time led the team to ask for a deadline extension.
Word Origin & History
From Middle French impossibilité, from Latin impossibilitās. By surface analysis, im- + possibility and impossible + -ity.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"God commands not impossibilities; and all the Ecclesiastical glue, that Liturgy, or Laymen can compound, is not able to soder up two such incongruous natures into the one flesh of a true beseeming Mariage."
— 1645 March 14 (Gregorian calendar), John Milton, Tetrachordon: Expositions upon the Foure Chief Places in Scripture, which Treat of Mariage, or Nullities in Mariage. […], London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 17:
"My dear Tom, you are going to undertake an Impossibility. If you knew my Father, you would never think of obtaining his Consent."
— 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter VII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XIV, page 104:
"The ancient teachers of this science […] promised impossibilities, and performed nothing."
— 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 73:
"Breathing had become difficult, swallowing acutely painful, and sleep an impossibility—for whenever he dropped off, the patient would choke and wake up frantically struggling for air."
— 1962, Aldous Huxley, chapter 8, in Island, New York: Bantam, published 1963, page 123:
"And what actinic, mind-wrenching form could the countermeme take? How could human hands assemble something so devastatingly powerful and hold it steady; what human mind could wield it without exploding from the inside out? What would deploying that concept in anger do to human ideatic space? How far out from the solution is modern memetic science, a year, a century? What insane impossibility has Hughes just committed himself to?"
— 2019 December 9, qntm, “Wild Light”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, pages 191–192:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ of traveling faster than light is a well-known law in physics.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The sheer ____ of finishing the work on time led the team to ask for a deadline extension.