From Middle English impossible.

• (British) IPA: /ɪmˈpɒs.ɪ.bəl/, /ɪmˈpɒs.ə.bəl/
• (America) IPA: /ɪmˈpɑ.sə.bl̩/

impossible (not comparable)

1. Not possible; not able to be done or happen.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene i]:

     Antonio: What impossible matter will he make easy next?
     Sebastian: I think he will carry this island home in his pocket and give it his son for an apple.
     Antonio : And sowing the kernels of it in the sea bring forth more islands.

   • 13 March 1962, John F. Kennedy, speech at the White House

     Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

   It is difficult, if not impossible, to memorize 20,000 consecutive numbers.
   Sarah thinks that nothing is impossible because things can always somehow happen.
2. (colloquial, of a person) Very difficult to deal with.

   You never listen to a word I say – you're impossible!

3. (math, dated) imaginary

   impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers

• unfeasible
• nonpossible (nonstandard)
• unhappenable (rare)
• unpossible (rare)

• (antonym(s) of “not able to be done or happen”): possible, inevitable

• French: impossible
• German: unmöglich
• Italian: impossibile
• Portuguese: impossível
• Russian: невозмо́жный
• Spanish: imposible

• French: insupportable, impossible
• German: unmöglich
• Italian: insopportabile, impossibile
• Portuguese: impossível, insuportável
• Russian: нереальный
• Spanish: insoportable

• French: impossible
• German: unmöglich
• Italian: impossibile
• Portuguese: impossível
• Russian: несбыточный
• Spanish: imposible

impossible (plural impossibles)

1. An impossibility.
2. A skateboard trick consisting of a backflip performed in midair.

• Italian: impossibile (2)
• Spanish: imposible