Inconceivable means impossible to believe or imagine. Utterly inconceivable, it is inconceivable that, an inconceivable scale.
It is a very strong claim — stronger than unlikely or implausible — and it is usually an overstatement, since most things called inconceivable turn out to have been merely unexpected. It is also famous as a running joke in The Princess Bride, where a character uses it repeatedly about things that keep happening. Note conceivable; and inconceivably, used as an intensifier.
1adjectiveinconceivableImpossible to believe or imagine.
“It was inconceivable to her that her own son could have stolen the money.”
inconceivable is a quality of impossibility.
In- plus conceivable, from Latin concipere, to take in — con plus capere, to take. Capture, receive and concept come from the same taking.
Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Middle English
conceyvable
English
conceivable
English, today
inconceivable
From in + conceivable. conceivable comes from Middle English conceyvable, equivalent to conceive + -able.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA