UNLIKELY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unlikely mean? 

• UNLIKELY (adjective)
  The adjective UNLIKELY has 3 senses:

1. not likely to be true or to occur or to have occurred

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

3. having a probability too low to inspire belief

  Familiarity information: UNLIKELY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNLIKELY (adjective)

Comparative: unlikelier   
Superlative: unlikeliest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not likely to be true or to occur or to have occurred

Synonyms:

improbable; unlikely

Context example:

an improbable event

Similar:

supposed (mistakenly believed)

Derivation:

unlikeliness (the improbability of a specified outcome)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Has little chance of being the case or coming about

Context example:

a butcher is unlikely to preach vegetarianism

Similar:

far-fetched; farfetched ((of a theory or explanation) highly imaginative but unlikely and unconvincing)

last (most unlikely or unsuitable)

outside; remote (very unlikely)

Attribute:

likelihood; likeliness (the probability of a specified outcome)

Antonym:

likely (has a good chance of being the case or of coming about)

Derivation:

unlikeliness (the improbability of a specified outcome)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Having a probability too low to inspire belief

Synonyms:

improbable; unbelievable; unconvincing; unlikely

Similar:

implausible (having a quality that provokes disbelief)

Derivation:

unlikeliness (the improbability of a specified outcome)

 Context examples 

However, to be injured by one of these fragments is extremely unlikely.

(Scientists Track Chinese Space Station as It Falls to Earth, VOA)

If you are self-employed, you won’t have trouble attracting new business, and it seems unlikely you will find yourself short of cash.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

But this is unlikely, astronomers say.

(Loneliest Young Star Seen by Spitzer and WISE, NASA)

“The most unlikely person I could think of,”—though his own face had suggested the allusion quite as a natural sequence.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Kilometers away—it’s unlikely that it would be an issue.

(NASA Weighs Use of Rover to Image Potential Mars Water Sites, NASA)

Confess, Lestrade, that all this is very unlikely.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Like Jupiter, however, Kepler-1647b is a gas giant, making the planet unlikely to host life.

(New Planet Is Largest Discovered That Orbits Two Suns, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

But, whatever may be their own wishes, it is very unlikely they should have opposed their brother's.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

It is too unlikely, for me to believe it without proof.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

According to clinical data studies, users will very unlikely have an addiction to the medicine.

(Brazil grants registration for first cannabis-based drug, Agência Brasil)