Definition of Unlikely

Unlikely

Not likely; improbable; not to be reasonably expected; as, an unlikely event; the thing you mention is very unlikely.

Not holding out a prospect of success; likely to fail; unpromising; as, unlikely means.

Not such as to inspire liking; unattractive; disagreeable.

In an unlikely manner.

Related Definitions:

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Unlikely Quotations

Figure skating is an unlikely Olympic event but its good television. It's sort of a combination of gymnastics and ballet. A little sexy too which doesn't hurt.
Andy Rooney

Cleanliness becomes more important when godliness is unlikely.
P. J. O'Rourke

Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs. This is the principle behind lotteries, dating, and religion.
Scott Adams

If all you're trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it's unlikely that you'll be very successful.
Michael Porter

Removing the faults in a stage-coach may produce a perfect stage-coach, but it is unlikely to produce the first motor car.
Edward de Bono

Courage is found in unlikely places.
J. R. R. Tolkien

I'd be interested in finding out if there is a light you walk into, and if you do meet people from your life and walk hand in hand with Jesus. I would hate for my death to be tragic: I'd like to be old when it happens. But hopefully a young death is unlikely.
Brian Molko

Nuclear physics is interesting but it is unlikely to help society.
John Cameron

To separate children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.
Earl Warren

Life gives you enough hard knocks so it's unlikely you'll stay that sure of yourself.
Jeanette Winterson

Musicians now find themselves in the unlikely position of being legitimate. At least the IRS thinks so.
Billy Joel

Either God is alive, in which case he'll deal with us as he sees fit. Or he is dead, in which case he was never alive, it being unlikely that he died of old age.
John Ralston Saul

I recognized that information was, in many respects, like a public good, and it was this insight that made it clear to me that it was unlikely that the private market would provide efficient resource allocations whenever information was endogenous.
Joseph Stiglitz

Moreover the incorporation requires the same components needed for protein synthesis, and is inhibited by the same inhibitors. Thus the system is most unlikely to be a complete artefact and is very probably closely related to genuine protein synthesis.
Francis Crick

I hope this view of the question may be a mistaken one, because it does not seem to me very unlikely that the suffrage will be granted to women.
John Bright

This is true enough, but success is the next best thing to happiness, and if you can't be happy as a success, it's very unlikely that you would find a deeper, truer happiness in failure.
Michael Korda

What is necessary is possible, what we want is expensive. What is unnecessary is unlikely.
Robert Fripp

I had come to the point when I realized it was unlikely that my film career was going to move beyond a certain level of role. And I was - because I had graphic instances of it - handicapped by the success of Star Trek. A director would say, 'I don't want Jean-Luc Picard in my movie' - and this was compounded by X-Men as well.
Patrick Stewart

My parents thought all actors were secretly drug addicts, except for Clint Eastwood, whom they admired. But they thought it was very unlikely that I would ever be Clint Eastwood.
Ethan Hawke

Politically, Obama's amazing streak of self-destructing opponents who have lain beneath his feet during his unlikely political career appears to be holding.
Eric Alterman

Yet, upon the whole, the space I traversed is unlikely to become the haunt of civilized man, or will only become so in isolated spots, as a chain of connection to a more fertile country; if such a country exist to the westward.
Charles Sturt

Suicide is possible, but not probable; hanging, I trust, is even more unlikely; for I hope that, by the time I die, my countrymen will have become civilised enough to abolish capital punishment.
Laurence Housman

It's unlikely that the organized religions will get more sectarian... or is it? I am not at all sure.
Mary Douglas

Indeed, in the present climate of mistrust of institutions, many people who yearn for a more meaningful and fulfilling life would regard the church as an unlikely place to go for guidance.
Hugh Mackay

We have good security. It's hard to get in here. Barring a tactical entry where terrorists come in and hold us hostage, that's about the only thing that could possibly warrant me carrying a gun in the clubhouse. That's highly unlikely, and I admit that. But my personal belief is I don't want to suffer from the poor choices of others.
Luke Scott

A scientist is an unlikely character to put at the center of a movie.
Bill Condon

We are told that the first part of the process is to select the very smallest seeds from the smallest plants, which is not at all unlikely, but I cannot speak to the fact from my own observation.
Robert Fortune

We genuinely believe to this day that it was an honest genuine mistake and we never imagined the punishment would be eight months. The precedent dictated that it was unlikely to be that. We don't regret he played for that period.
David Gill

War as Napoleon knew it just not possible any more. However, we're very unlikely to accept or recognize "world peace" even when we get it.
Bruce Sterling

At one point I intended to write precursor and sequel novels, about the establishment of the Web and its next evolution, but I am very unlikely to now; they would take place in a different universe.
John M. Ford

More Unlikely Quotations

Unlikely Translations

unlikely in French is improbable
unlikely in German is ungleich, unwahrscheinlich
unlikely in Spanish is improbable, inverosimil
unlikely in Swedish is osannolik

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