Meaning

Not likely; improbable; not to be reasonably expected..

Definitions by Sense

1. Not likely; improbable; not to be reasonably expected.
2. Not holding out a prospect of success; likely to fail; unpromising.
3. In an improbable manner.
4. Something or somebody considered unlikely.

Example Sentences

It is pretty unlikely that you'll win, but I will pray that at least you do well.

In the highly unlikely event of landing in water, lifejackets are stored under the seat.

Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing. Yet oddly enough I found here a far more unlikely substance, and that was camphor.

The Saturday evening Cardiff-West Wales mail train is still steam-worked, but a most unlikely locomotive used on May 23 was Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 No. 45250 (5A); it returned on May 25 with a train of steel billets.

Saturday’s tariffs are unlikely to be Trump’s last. The president said himself said in the Oval Office that additional tariffs could come by mid-February on chips, pharmaceuticals, steel, aluminum, copper, oil and gas imports – along with tariffs on the European Union – all threats that few would discount given his willingness to follow through on the North American and China tariffs on Saturday.

Nor had the post mortem on Newson's body revealed any illness or other physical condition that might have prevented him from applying the brake, although after four days in the oven-like heat of the wreckage, the body was so badly decomposed as to make any reliable post mortem results unlikely.

unlikely means

The molecular ion candidates are divided by the testing phase into three categories: rejects, unlikelies, and probables. Differences between each candidate and the prominent peaks in the spectrum are computed.

Word Forms

• unlikelier
• more unlikely
• unlikeliest
• most unlikely
• unlikelies

Synonyms for unlikely

Antonyms for unlikely

Related Words

When Should You Use Unlikely?

Use unlikely when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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