# impossible

Pronunciation: US say "im-PAH-suh-buhl" /ɪmˈpɑ.sə.bl̩/; UK say "im-POS-i-buhl" /ɪmˈpɒs.ɪ.bəl/

## Adjective

1. That cannot happen or cannot be done in any way.
   - Simple: Not able to be done or to happen at all.
   - _Reaching the summit before nightfall was impossible given the weather._
   - _She found it impossible to finish the report in a single day._
2. Very difficult to deal with. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: So hard to deal with that you lose patience.
   - _She became impossible the moment anyone questioned her plans._
   - _Their toddler was impossible during the long flight home._

## Noun

3. A thing that cannot be done or that cannot happen.
   - Simple: Something that cannot be done or cannot happen.
   - _Engineers were asked to accomplish the impossible within a month._
   - _She refused to accept the impossible and kept searching for a way._

## Adjective

4. In older mathematics, imaginary; designating a number that is not real. *(dated)*
   - Simple: In older math, describing a number that is not a real number.
   - _Older algebra books often say that a quadratic equation with no real solutions has two impossible roots._
   - _What earlier scholars dismissed as impossible numbers became central to modern analysis._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A skateboarding trick in which the board wraps end over end through a full vertical turn around one of the skater's feet, usually the back foot.

## Origin

From Middle English impossible, borrowed from Old French impossible, from Latin impossibilis, from in- ('not') and possibilis ('possible').

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/impossible (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).