unbelievable
- 1Astonishing, or so surprising that one can hardly believe it.
The band played an unbelievable set that had the whole crowd singing along.
It's unbelievable how much the old neighborhood has changed in ten years.
Similarincredible
Oppositeordinary, unremarkable, unsurprising
Note
In praise the word turns loose and exuberant: unbelievable pizza, the most unbelievable thing happened to me today. Excited writers sometimes stretch it to unbelievablest, as New Society did in 1967 with "the wildest, craziest, simply unbelievablest people," but that form is rare and nonstandard; the ordinary forms are more unbelievable and most unbelievable.
- 2Too implausible or improbable to be believed.
Investigators found his account of the night unbelievable and arrested him.
The characters keep making unbelievable choices that no real person would make.
Similarunlikely, improbable
Oppositelikely, plausible, probable
Note
Here the word means just what its parts say, un- plus believable: an excuse or an account that fails to convince. Because the same word also praises, as in the admiring meaning, an unbelievable story can sound like a compliment or an accusation, so implausible or unlikely is the clearer choice when doubt is the point.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from the prefix un- + believable.