conceivably

adverbC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,143 of 15,258neutral

Conceivably means as could just possibly be imagined. Could conceivably happen, conceivably true, not conceivably.

It concedes bare possibility and nothing more, which is why it is nearly always a way of dismissing something politely. It sits below possibly and well below probably in any careful writer's ladder.

Definitions of conceivably

1adverbconceivablyAs could just possibly be imagined.C1
“The storm could conceivably reach the coast by tomorrow night.”

conceivably is a manner.

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Middle English
conceyvable
English
conceivable
English, today
conceivably

From conceivable + -ly. conceivable comes from Middle English conceyvable, equivalent to conceive + -able.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

conceivably in the wild

Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land.
A World Transformed
However, they could conceivably be included within Pleosporomycetidae in future.
Pleosporomycetidae
The main purpose of this statute is to allow local California governments to work together to get financing in a way that will conceivably lower borrowing costs.
Marks-Roos
In the law, a close case is generally defined as a ruling that could conceivably be decided in more than one way.
Close case

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

← Vocabulary