implausible

/ɪmˈplɔzəbəl/

/ɪmˈplɔzɪbəl/

Something that's implausible is farfetched or unlikely. If it's 3 pm and you still have to study for three exams and write an essay before midnight, it’s implausible that you’ll also have time to watch a movie.

The adjective implausible breaks down into im, meaning “not,” and plausible, meaning "likely." So it simply means "not likely." Implausible ideas or stories usually get high marks for creativity, but they're just too crazy to be believable. But as philosopher René Descartes noted, “One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.”

Definitions of implausible

1. adjective

   highly imaginative but unlikely
   “an implausible explanation”

   synonyms: far-fetched, farfetched

   unlikely

   has little chance of being the case or coming about
2. adjective

   having a quality that provokes disbelief
   “gave the teacher an implausible excuse”

   synonyms:

   incredible, unbelievable

   beyond belief or understanding

   improbable, unbelievable, unconvincing, unlikely

   having a probability too low to inspire belief

   antonyms:

   plausible

   apparently reasonable, valid, or truthful

   believable, credible

   capable of being believed

   arguable

   capable of being supported by argument

   glib, pat, slick

   having only superficial plausibility