Impossible vs Improbable - What's the difference?
impossible | improbable |
Not possible; not able to be done or happen.
* 1865 , (Lewis Carroll), (w, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
* 13 March 1962 ,
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
, volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (colloquial, of a person) Very difficult to deal with.
(math, dated) imaginary
an impossibility
* Late 14th century': “Madame,” quod he, “this were an '''impossible !” — Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Franklin's Tale’, ''Canterbury Tales
Not likely to be true.
Not likely to happen.
As adjectives the difference between impossible and improbable
is that impossible is not possible; not able to be done or happen while improbable is not likely to be true.As a noun impossible
is {{cx|obsolete|lang=en}} an impossibility.impossible
English
Alternative forms
* inpossible (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- Nothing is impossible , only impassible.
- Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
Our banks are out of control, passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible , there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.}}
- impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers
Synonyms
* (l) (rare)Antonyms
* (not able to be done or happen) possible, inevitableNoun
(en noun)Statistics
* ----improbable
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- It's highly improbable that aliens abducted you.
- Due to the loss of power, it is improbable that we will begin on time.