Getting tickets for the concert is practically impossible.
well-nigh impossible formal (=almost impossible )
Policing the entire coastline is well-nigh impossible.
seemingly impossible (=seeming to be impossible)
He managed to win the chess game from a seemingly impossible position.
physically impossible
It is physically impossible to survive for long in the desert without water.
nouns
an impossible job/task
He faced the impossible task of paying back huge debts.
an impossible feat (=something that is impossible to do)
She achieved the seemingly impossible feat of breaking the world record.
an impossible dream (=something you want, but will never happen)
For a small club, winning the cup final will always be the impossible dream.
impossible demands
She was growing tired of the company’s impossible demands.
phrases
it is impossible to do something
It is impossible to know if this story is true.
difficult, if not impossible (=difficult, and perhaps impossible)
Obtaining funding for the film will be difficult, if not impossible.
THESAURUS
impossible something that is impossible cannot happen or be done 不可能发生的;办不到的
It’s impossible to get a taxi around here.
这里是叫不到出租车的。
At times, finding a job felt like an impossible task.
有时找份工作就像是不可能完成的任务。
impractical something that is impractical is too expensive, takes too much time, is too difficult etc and therefore it is not sensible to try to do it 不切实际的,不现实的
It’s a nice idea, but it’s totally impractical.
主意是不错,但是完全不切实际。
We cannot all just stop using our cars - that would be completely impractical.
我们不可能全都不使用汽车,这完全不现实。
nan impractical suggestion
out of the question used when saying that something is completely impossible, especially because it is not allowed 完全不可能的〔尤因为不被允许〕
It’s out of the question for you to go alone.
让你独自一人去是不可能的。
there’s no way informal used when saying that you think something is completely impossible 不可能,办不到
There’s no way we can get to the airport in less than an hour.
我们不可能在一小时内赶到机场。
inconceivable impossible to imagine or believe 不可思议的,难以置信的
It seemed inconceivable that there could be an end to the fighting in Northern Ireland.
北爱尔兰的战斗能够停火似乎让人难以置信。
unthinkable impossible to imagine or believe – used especially about something that seems very shocking to people 难以置信的,难以想象的〔尤指令人震惊的事〕
In those days it was unthinkable for a lady to work outside the home.
it can’t be done spoken used when saying very definitely that something is impossible 那是做不到的,那是不可能的
I’m afraid it can’t be done.
我想那恐怕是不可能的。
Examples from the Corpus
impossible• We're supposed to do all this work by tomorrow, but it's impossible.• You're impossible!• It was tough, tough work, but not impossible.• Many fear that peace is now impossible.• She's impossible! Even when I offer to help her she always find some reason to complain.• It is mathematically impossible for any Democraticrival to overhaul Clinton in the primaryprocess.• Her back injury has made it impossible for her to play tennis anymore.• The street was narrow and it was impossible for the two buses to pass.• ""The policesuspectJohn.'' ""But that's impossible. He was with us the whole day.''• Sometimes an abortion seems like the only way out of an impossible situation.• an impossibletask• It's a seemingly impossible task.• It was impossible that anyone could have survived the crash.• Another non-solution is to sign a treaty and then forget about it in a few years or declare it impossible to achieve.• In the eighteenth century it seemed impossible to build a barn without creating a work of art.• It is possible to find safe harbor but nearly impossible to do so without a few blow-ups.• When people leave prison, they often find it impossible to get a job.• It was almost impossible to get some rest.• Dan's impossible to live with when he's sick.• It is impossible to take a complex problem and rationally unravel the mess into logicalinteracting pieces.• The twins are so alike that it's impossible to tell them apart.
It’s impossible to• He'd call it doing research. It's impossible todiscuss anything with him.• The weirdest car must be Nissan's Chappo city car. It's impossible to ignore-for all the wrong reasons.• You know the kind of energy you have to expend to be that? It's impossible to me.• I don't know. It's impossible to tell now.
put ... in an impossible position• It would put them in an impossible position if a legally-binding Living Will demanded what they consideredunethical or bad medicalpractice.
impossible2 noun
the impossiblesomething that cannot be done 不可能的事
attempt/do/ask etc the impossible
I just want to be able to buy healthy food at a reasonable price. Is that asking the impossible?
我只是希望能以合理的价格买到健康食品。难道这是在要求不可能的事吗?
Examples from the Corpus
attempt/do/ask etc the impossible• We can not expectteachers to do the impossible.• He would attempt the impossible and set up an airline from scratch in three months.
Examples from the Corpus
impossible• Somehow without meaning to, she found that she had done the impossible for her: she had memorized that poem.