UNLIKELY in a Sentence

Learn UNLIKELY from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

145 example sentences for UNLIKELY, such as:

1. The project seemed unlikely to succeed.
2. We are unlikely to produce any surplus this year.
3. He is very ill and unlikely to recover in this month.
4. It was unlikely, she thought, that the birds were the same.
5. The committee's recommendations are unlikely to be made public.

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 Meanings and Examples of UNLIKELY
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
unlikely
 a.  improbable; has little chance of being the case or coming about
Classic Sentence: (107 in 8 pages)
1  It was unlikely, she thought, that the birds were the same.
Between the Acts By Virginia Woolf
Context  Highlight   In Unit 7
2  Putting one thing with another, it was unlikely that they would ever meet again.
Between the Acts By Virginia Woolf
Context  Highlight   In Unit 12
3  It was unlikely that the doctor should fear death; and yet that was what Utterson was tempted to suspect.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde By Robert Louis Stevenson
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER REMARKABLE INCIDENT OF DR. LANYON
4  But that was most unlikely: not one chance in a hundred.
Lady Chatterley's Lover By D H Lawrence
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 13
5  The baronet, nevertheless, is not unlikely to marry again; he is quite fool enough.
Persuasion By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 21
6  Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely that he will be back before evening.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND
7  I think it unlikely that he waited at the moor-gate every evening.
The Hound of the Baskervilles By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 3. The Problem
8  On the whole I incline to the latter view, since the matter was evidently important, and it is unlikely that the composer of such a letter would be careless.
The Hound of the Baskervilles By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 4. Sir Henry Baskerville
9  There can be no question that Stapleton had a confidant, though it is unlikely that he ever placed himself in his power by sharing all his plans with him.
The Hound of the Baskervilles By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 15. A Retrospection
10  All the rest of the night I tossed and tumbled, framing theory after theory, each more unlikely than the last.
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In III. The Adventure of The Yellow Face
11  Our chambers were always full of chemicals and of criminal relics which had a way of wandering into unlikely positions, and of turning up in the butter-dish or in even less desirable places.
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In VI. The Adventure of The Musgrave Ritual
12  You have possibly had other guns in reserve in case there should be several tigers, or in the unlikely supposition of your own aim failing you.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In I. THE ADVENTURE OF THE EMPTY HOUSE
13  It is unlikely that a youngster like Adair would at once make a hideous scandal by exposing a well known man so much older than himself.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In I. THE ADVENTURE OF THE EMPTY HOUSE
14  And now I think that a few hours' sleep would do us all good, for I do not propose to leave before eleven o'clock, and it is unlikely that we shall be back before morning.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SIX NAPOLEONS
15  In my mind I set it down as an impossible performance, save in the unlikely case that she had a second pair of glasses.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE GOLDEN PINCE-NEZ
Example Sentence: (38 in 3 pages)
16  Someone who lacks staying power and persistence is unlikely to make a good researcher.
17  We are unlikely to produce any surplus this year.
18  The project seemed unlikely to succeed.
19  The committee's recommendations are unlikely to be made public.
20  The close correlation between the data obtained from these two sources suggests that recall error is unlikely to be a confounding factor.
21  Tomorrow's vote is unlikely to settle the question of who will replace their leader.
22  First, Ehrlich knows it would be extremely unlikely to win approval from the Democratic-dominated General Assembly.
23  He is very ill and unlikely to recover in this month.
24  Even more unlikely is that they would be refused at the border.
25  She's never ever getting out of jail unless she can prove temporary insanity, which is highly unlikely given her actions.
26  It surprised me when I first discovered that such was his intention: I had thought him a man unlikely to be influenced by motives so commonplace in his choice of a wife; but the longer I considered the position, education.
27  Your uncle, I am sorry to say, is now on a sick bed; from which, considering the nature of his disease -- decline -- and the stage it has reached, it is unlikely he will ever rise.
28  The developing world is unlikely to change its stand on the issue of agriculture subsidies.
29  Poles of the same name repel each other; poles of unlike name attract each other.
30  This time, unlike gullible investors during the 1920s, the big losers would be taxpayers, who never had the choice of not playing.