impossibly
English
Etymology
Etymology tree
From impossible + -ly.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɪmˈpɒ.sɪb.li/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Adverb
impossibly (comparative more impossibly, superlative most impossibly)
- Not possibly; in an impossible manner.
- To the point of impossibility.
- The topology problem was impossibly difficult.
- Contrary to what had been thought possible.
- Impossibly, after the water receded, the cat was found asleep on a chair jammed in a tree.
- 2007 April 22, Julia Chaplin, “The Life of the After-Party”, in The New York Times[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 March 2022:
- ANDRÉ SARAIVA, the slight 35-year-old graffitist and night-life entrepreneur, showed up at the Emmanuel Perrotin gallery in the Marais on a recent Saturday night in his trademark impossibly skinny jeans and a navy Thom Browne peacoat.
Antonyms
Translations
in an impossible manner
|
to the point of impossibility
|
contrary to what was thought possible
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References
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “impossibly”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “impossibly”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Categories:
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *leyg- (like)
- English terms suffixed with -ly (adverbial)
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adverbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English degree adverbs
- English modal adverbs