Word.ws English Dictionary

by any stretch of the imagination

by any stretch of the imagination prepositional phrase: by any means; in any sense; regardless of how one puts or considers it.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) By any means; in any sense; regardless of how one puts or considers it.
    • The British Prime Minister isn't a monarch by any stretch of the imagination.

Questions about by any stretch of the imagination

What does by any stretch of the imagination mean?
By any stretch of the imagination means by any means; in any sense; regardless of how one puts or considers it.
What part of speech is by any stretch of the imagination?
By any stretch of the imagination is a prepositional phrase.

Words near by any stretch of the imagination in the dictionary

  1. by and large
  2. by any chance
  3. by any means
  4. by any measure
  5. by any stretch
  6. by any stretch of the imagination
  7. by blood
  8. By Brook
  9. by chalks
  10. by chance
  11. by Christmas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: by any stretch of the imagination (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-by any stretch of the imagination.ogg.

Cite this entry: “by any stretch of the imagination.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/by_any_stretch_of_the_imagination. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.