Download the app
educalingo
Search
To be poor and independent is very nearly an impossibility.
William Cobbett

Meaning of "impossibility" in the English dictionary

Dictionary
DICTIONARY
section

PRONUNCIATION OF IMPOSSIBILITY

impossibility  [ɪmˌpɒsəˈbɪlɪtɪ] play
facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsapp

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF IMPOSSIBILITY

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Impossibility is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES IMPOSSIBILITY MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Impossibility

In contract law, impossibility is an excuse for the nonperformance of duties under a contract, based on a change in circumstances, the nonoccurrence of which was an underlying assumption of the contract, that makes performance of the contract literally impossible. For example, if Rachel contracts to pay Joey $1000 to paint her house on October 1, but the house burns to the ground before the end of September, Rachel is excused from her duty to pay Joey the $1000, and he is excused from his duty to paint her house; however, Joey may still be able to sue under the theory of unjust enrichment for the value of any benefit he conferred on Rachel before her house burned down. The parties to a contract may choose to ignore impossibility by inserting a hell or high water clause, which mandates that payments continue even if completion of the contract becomes physically impossible. In common law, for the defense of "impossibility" to be raised performance must not merely be difficult or...

Definition of impossibility in the English dictionary

The definition of impossibility in the dictionary is the state or quality of being impossible. Other definition of impossibility is something that is impossible.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH IMPOSSIBILITY


ability
əˈbɪlɪtɪ
accessibility
əkˌsɛsɪˈbɪlɪtɪ
accountability
əˌkaʊntəˈbɪlɪtɪ
availability
əˌveɪləˈbɪlɪtɪ
capability
ˌkeɪpəˈbɪlɪtɪ
compatibility
kəmˌpætɪˈbɪlɪtɪ
disability
ˌdɪsəˈbɪlɪtɪ
durability
ˌdjʊərəˈbɪlɪtɪ
eligibility
ˌɛlɪdʒɪˈbɪlɪtɪ
flexibility
ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪtɪ
inability
ˌɪnəˈbɪlɪtɪ
liability
ˌlaɪəˈbɪlɪtɪ
mobility
məʊˈbɪlɪtɪ
nobility
nəʊˈbɪlɪtɪ
possibility
ˌpɒsɪˈbɪlɪtɪ
probability
ˌprɒbəˈbɪlɪtɪ
reliability
rɪˌlaɪəˈbɪlɪtɪ
responsibility
rɪˌspɒnsəˈbɪlɪtɪ
stability
stəˈbɪlɪtɪ
visibility
ˌvɪzɪˈbɪlɪtɪ

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE IMPOSSIBILITY

imposer
imposing
imposing stone
imposing table
imposingly
imposingness
imposition
impossibilism
impossibilist
impossibilities
impossible
impossible figure
impossibleness
impossibly
impost
imposter
imposthumate
imposthumation
imposthume
impostor

WORDS THAT END LIKE IMPOSSIBILITY

agility
credibility
facility
feasibility
fertility
functionality
hostility
humility
inevitability
instability
merchantability
profitability
suitability
susceptibility
sustainability
tranquility
usability
utility
variability
versatility
vulnerability

Synonyms and antonyms of impossibility in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

SYNONYMS OF «IMPOSSIBILITY»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «impossibility» and belong to the same grammatical category.
synonyms of impossibility

Translation of «impossibility» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF IMPOSSIBILITY

Find out the translation of impossibility to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of impossibility from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «impossibility» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

不可能
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

imposibilidad
570 millions of speakers

English

impossibility
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

असंभव
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

استحالة
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

невозможность
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

impossibilidade
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

অসম্ভবতা
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

impossibilité
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Kemustahilan
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

Unmöglichkeit
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

不可能
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

불가능
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Impossibility
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

sự không thể có
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

சாத்தியமற்றது என்பதை அடிப்படையாகக்
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

अशक्यता
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

imkânsızlık
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

impossibilità
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

niemożność
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

неможливість
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

imposibilitate
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

αδυναμία
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

onmoontlik
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

omöjlighet
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

umulighet
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of impossibility

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «IMPOSSIBILITY»

The term «impossibility» is quite widely used and occupies the 41.012 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Quite widely used
81
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «impossibility» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of impossibility
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «impossibility».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «IMPOSSIBILITY» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «impossibility» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «impossibility» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about impossibility

EXAMPLES

10 QUOTES WITH «IMPOSSIBILITY»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word impossibility.
1
James Baldwin
Confronted with the impossibility of remaining faithful to one's beliefs, and the equal impossibility of becoming free of them, one can be driven to the most inhuman excesses.
2
Dorothea Brande
The Wright brothers flew through the smoke screen of impossibility.
3
Anita Brookner
The essence of romantic love is that wonderful beginning, after which sadness and impossibility may become the rule.
4
Graydon Carter
A workday lunch that lasts as long as a transcontinental flight is an impossibility for all but the most pliant and footloose of food tourists. To get in the game, you need a thick wallet, an adventurous palate, and a whole lot of time.
5
Sri Chinmoy
Impossibility is a dictionary word.
6
Emile M. Cioran
The obsession with suicide is characteristic of the man who can neither live nor die, and whose attention never swerves from this double impossibility.
7
William Cobbett
To be poor and independent is very nearly an impossibility.
8
Drew Gilpin Faust
We have been telling and hearing and reading war stories for millennia. Their endurance may lie in their impossibility; they can never be complete, for the tensions and the contradictions within them will never be eliminated or resolved. That challenge is essential to their power and their attraction. War stories matter.
9
Lee De Forest
While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially it is an impossibility.
10
Auberon Herbert
If government half a century ago had provided us with all our dinners and breakfasts, it would be the practice of our orators today to assume the impossibility of our providing for ourselves.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «IMPOSSIBILITY»

Discover the use of impossibility in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to impossibility and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Impossibility : The Limits of Science and the Science of ...
This new book by John D. Barrow looks at what limits there might be to human discovery and what we might find, ultimately, to be unknowable, undoable, or unthinkable.
John D. Barrow, 1998
2
The Impossibility of Tomorrow: An Incarnation Novel
The Incarnation series is created by Alloy Entertainment, producer of bestselling teen and middle grade series including The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Liars.
Avery Williams, 2013
3
The Impossibility of Religious Freedom
But religious freedom in America is, in fact, impossible. So argues this timely and iconoclastic work by law and religion scholar Winnifred Sullivan. Sullivan uses as the backdrop for the book the trial of Warner vs.
Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, 2011
4
The Case of Peter Pan, Or, The Impossibility of Children's ...
What can Peter Pan tell us about the theatrical, literary, and educational institutions of which it is a part? These are some of the questions this book attempts to answer.
Jacqueline Rose, 1993
5
The impossibility of God
This unique anthology brings together for the first time most of the important arguments for the impossibility of God that have been published.
Michael Martin, Ricki Monnier, 2003
6
Weaponized Architecture: The Impossibility of Innocence
Weaponized Architecture is thus manifested as a Palestinian shelter, with an associated agricultural platform, which expresses its illegality through its architectural vocabulary.
Léopold Lambert, 2012
7
The Impossibility of Motherhood: Feminism, Individualism and ...
This image of the mother-child relation acknowledges several impossibilities— the impossibility of the otherness of the child, when the child is born of oneself; the impossibility of the child's existence for itself when it is born of another ( oneself); ...
Patrice DiQuinzio, 2013
8
Nothing Created Everything: The Scientific Impossibility of ...
Just months after the 2009 discovery of the supposed "missing link," author Ray Comfort turns the tables on evolutionists. In "Nothing Created Everything," he examins the evidence for evolution and shows it is lacking.
Ray Comfort, 2009
9
Frustration and supervening impossibility / The doctrines of ...
However, there is an exception to this principle of pacta sunt servanda if non-performance is caused by upheavals beyond the parties' control. The purpose of this essay is to give a short overview about this issue.
Jenny Walther, 2005
10
The Political Philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The ...
Outlining his profound opposition to Godless materialism and revolutionary change, this book finds parallels between Rousseau and Burke, as well as showing that Rousseau developed the first modern theory of nationalism. ethical, religious ...
Mads Qvortrup, 2003

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «IMPOSSIBILITY»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term impossibility is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Iran's short-lived nukes celebration – POLITICO
The rest, given the impossibility of any large-scale entrepreneurship, find themselves hindered by two immovable obstacles. First: A lawless ... «Politico, Jul 15»
2
Borges: Winds of change blowing Tiger Woods away | Boston Herald
... ahead of only 10 players in the 156-man field on the one day in which low scores were a possibility for the many but an impossibility for him. «Boston Herald, Jul 15»
3
Next robot revolution -- a virtual bartender? | The Times of Israel
With machine learning and artificial intelligence modules, however, turning RoboDrink into a barroom shrink isn't an impossibility. «The Times of Israel, Jul 15»
4
Arthur Beesley: Greek deal built on two undermining fallacies
A haircut on the principal amount has been ruled an impossibility within the euro zone, most forcibly by Germany, but it's difficult to plot any way ... «Irish Times, Jul 15»
5
State Bond Commission approves funding for Chennault Internatio …
We try our best to keep them away from the runway, it's a virtual impossibility but we have cannons here that make noise, and guns that shoot ... «KPLC-TV, Jul 15»
6
What One Mom's 'Distressed Baby' Taught the World - Yahoo
... the three months she and her husband spent willing their baby, Mila (born weighing only 1 pound 9 ounces), to pull through; the impossibility ... «Yahoo Parenting, Jul 15»
7
Trainwreck review: Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow's rom-com is not …
... ultimately moving performance) who used to lecture his two young daughters on the impossibility of monogamy. The adult Amy has absorbed ... «Slate Magazine, Jul 15»
8
Peter Moody vows to beat cobalt charges | PerthNow
He said it was “an impossibility” for a stable of his size to completely protect itself from illegal treatment indiscretions because nanny state rules, ... «Perth Now, Jul 15»
9
A History of Bedbugs Driving Us Insane - Pictorial - Jezebel
And certainly, the social panic provoked by bedbugs—couched as it always is in fear—has contributed to the impossibility of pinning down the ... «Jezebel, Jul 15»
10
COMMENT Home Office has been 'egregious and cynical' on …
... due partly to resistance from civil society in those countries, given the impossibility of guaranteeing the safety and welfare of unaccompanied ... «Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Jul 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Impossibility [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/impossibility>. Apr 2024 ».
Download the educalingo app
en
English dictionary
Discover all that is hidden in the words on
index
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z