unbelievable
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From un- + believable.[1]
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]unbelievable (comparative more unbelievable or (rare) unbelievabler, superlative most unbelievable or (rare) unbelievablest)
- (literally) Not to be believed.
- Synonyms: beyond belief, incredible, noncredible
- Antonyms: believable, credible
- 1996, Colin Thompson, “Four Pigeons”, in Venus the Caterpillar and Further Wild Stories, London: Hodder Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 24:
- ‘Come on, girls,’ said Steve, ‘be honest, we won.’ / ‘Yeah,’ said Raymond, ‘we let you off because you’re girls.’ / ‘You’re unbelievable,’ said Liz. / ‘Well, if we’re unbelievable,’ said Steve, ‘then you’re unbelievabler.’
- (figuratively) Amazing, astonishing; so surprising that one is almost, or figuratively, unable to believe.
- Synonym: incredible
- The most unbelievable thing happened to me today!
- This restaurant makes unbelievable pizza!
- 1932 February 6, Virginia Chumley, “Visits with Virginia”, in The Chattanooga News, volume XLIV, number 189, Chattanooga, Tenn., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 11, column 6:
- Whether you want the unbelievablest sheer of chiffon . . . or the most durable of service weight . . . I’ve concluded, after a round of looking, that these stores give you a real money’s worth!
- 1967, New Society, volume 9, London, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 680, column 1:
- In other words—join the gpo and hear the world; have fun; talk to the wildest, craziest, simply unbelievablest people.
- 2010 March 9, Emily Lakdawalla, “Unbelievably spectacular flight through Candor Chasma”, in The Planetary Society[1], Pasadena, Calif., archived from the original on 2020-08-06:
- The unbelievablest (to coin a word) thing about this animation is the fact that it is generated in real time, like a video game!
- Implausible or improbable.
- Synonyms: improbable, infeasible, unlikely
- Antonyms: feasible, likely, plausible, probable
- His excuse seems rather unbelievable.
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]incredible
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implausible
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References
[edit]- ^ “unbelievable, adj.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.