Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Impossibility
Im-posˊsi-bil′i-ty
,Noun.
pl.
Impossibilities
(#)
. [L.
impossibilitas
: cf. F. impossibilité
.] 1.
The quality of being impossible; impracticability.
They confound difficulty with
impossibility
. South.
2.
An impossible thing; that which is not possible; that which can not be thought, done, or endured.
Impossibilities
! O, no, there’s none. Cowley.
3.
Inability; helplessness.
[R.]
Latimer.
Logical impossibility
, a condition or statement involving contradiction or absurdity; as, that a thing can be and not be at the same time. See
Principle of Contradiction
, under Contradiction
.Webster 1828 Edition
Impossibility
IMPOSSIBIL'ITY
,Noun.
1.
That which cannot be; the state of being not possible to exist. That a thing should be and not be at the same time, is an impossibility.2.
Impracticability; the state or quality of being not feasible or possible to be done. That a man by his own strength should lift a ship of the line, is to him an impossibility, as the means are inadequate to the end. [See Impossible.]Definition 2025
impossibility
impossibility
English
Noun
impossibility (countable and uncountable, plural impossibilities)
- Something that is impossible.
- Meeting the deadline is an impossibility; there is no way we can be ready in time.
- (uncountable) The quality of being impossible.
- South
- They confound difficulty with impossibility.
- South
- 1749, John Cleland, Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Part 2
- ...he threw himself upon her, and his back being now towards me, I could only take his being ingulph'd for granted, by the directions he mov'd in, and the impossibility of missing so staring a mark...
- 1749, John Cleland, Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Part 2
- (obsolete) Inability; helplessness.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Latimer to this entry?)
Antonyms
Translations
The quality of being impossible
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