improbable
53
4.9
- adjective
- /ɪmˈprɑːbəbl/
:
improbable
- Winning the lottery is an improbable event for most people.
- highly improbable
- seem improbable
- an improbable event
And although they seem improbable, they are improbable, in fact, impossible in one step.
- And although they seem improbable, they are improbable, in fact, impossible in one step.
- So he says once you've eliminated the impossible, anything that remains, however improbable is true.
- So his byline was when you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable must be true.
- In new directions, your character has become somewhat accustomed to the impossible or improbable situation.
- But now judging by what's going on in Congress, a multi month stimulus check, it just seems very improbable from my point of view.
- It's quite probable that something funny is going on around the JFK assassination and it's highly improbable that the moon landings are fake.
- And I, I think that's something like the situation we're facing with fine tuning, that it's just too improbable to take it to be fluke.
- Someone said to me, they said if really extremely improbable things never happened, then that would be a miracle.
- So it seems immensely improbable on the surface that we would exist or there would be a world like this.
- It's, it's improbable, but it's not crazy.
Examples
-
Improbable, unlikely, but never impossible.
-
The universe as it presents itself to us is highly improbable, is highly unlikely.
-
So getting on top of this thing seems like really, really hard and improbable for one young woman, at least without help.
-
The one thing to say about it was a highly improbable outcome.
-
The thought that that could be done fairly and properly in a few days is improbable in the extreme.
-
You're an improbable person, Eve, and so am I.
-
But any other explanation seemed even more improbable than the one Rhoodie had given him.
Fiction book (1992) -
Significant, though not revolutionary, democratization in Africa may be improbable, but is not necessarily impossible.
Academic text (1993) -
The legislation was an impressive, perhaps even improbable, achievement, passed in an era of intense political polarization.
Academic text (2011) -
It seems improbable that they will finish the project on time without any assistance.
Synonyms
487
1.9
People do not expect it to happen or be true
432
4.9
Very surprising and almost impossible to accept as true
162
5.0
Very unlikely to happen
26
7.0
Not likely to be true or hard to believe
Antonyms
How Likely
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word improbable is made of in- meaning 'not' and prob meaning 'to prove', the same part you see in prove. So something improbable is 'not provable' and 'not likely to be true or to happen'.