impassable
Americanadjective
-
not passable; not allowing passage over, through, along, etc..
Heavy snow made the roads impassable.
-
unable to be surmounted.
an impassable obstacle to further negotiations.
-
(of currency) unable to be circulated.
He tore the bill in half, making it impassable.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of impassable
Explanation
Whether it’s a road, a barrier, a river, or an abyss, if you can’t travel through or over it, you can describe it as impassable. When you break apart the word impassable, it’s pretty easy to figure out what it means. The im- prefix, a variant of in-, may be familiar to you as a way to say “not.” And passable is likely pretty familiar too, referring to something that can be crossed. When you combine those parts you get something that you can’t navigate. Impassable is usually used in a literal sense, referring to things that you can’t travel through — like side streets after a major snow storm.
Vocabulary lists containing impassable
The Alchemist
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Lincoln Inaugural Address (March 1861)
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Impassable roads have made it hard for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and others to distribute food, water and fuel.
From Reuters • Oct. 1, 2017
Impassable in summer, Siberian rivers become crossing points when they freeze over in the winter, In other words, the landscapes and cityscapes hung up on the wall of the mayor speak to you.
From BBC • May 19, 2015
"We've had several fun conversations about 'The Wildwood Chronicles' and the talking coyote soldiers in the Impassable Wilderness," Allee said.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 26, 2014
As if this weren't bad enough, the crows fly Prue's brother deep into a wooded no man's land, the Impassable Wilderness.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 13, 2011
Are these mountain peaks of the Unknowable, the Impassable, which encompass the skyline of our humanity, these heights so mysterious and so unscalable, not rather bulwarks between man's pride and the abyss?
From Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man by Oemler, Marie Conway
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
