impasse
Americannoun
-
a position or situation from which there is no escape; deadlock.
- Synonyms:
- dead end, standoff, standstill, stalemate
-
a road or way that has no outlet; cul-de-sac.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of impasse
1850–55; < French, equivalent to im- im- 2 + -passe, stem of passer to pass
Explanation
When two huge semi trailers met face-to-face on a one-lane mountain road, the drivers jumped out of their cabs and exclaimed, "We're at an impasse! We can't move forward — we can only reverse and go back in the direction from which we came." If you investigate impasse a little more closely, you'll discover passer, the French word for to pass. The im- prefix is a negative, meaning that there's no way any passing is going to occur. It's impossible. An impasse is any situation in which the parties involved can't, or won't, move forward or make any sort of progress. Either they are literally stuck, like two big trucks trying to pass each other on a narrow road, or they are figuratively stuck, as in two politicians who are unable to reach an agreement on a new policy.
Vocabulary lists containing impasse
This Week in Words: January 20 - 26, 2018
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This Week in Words: March 16–22, 2019
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "I"
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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.
Impasse over new MPAs is a long-running example.
From Scientific American • Nov. 29, 2022
Dozens in the Les Cayes tent city hailed from the nearby poor neighborhood of Impasse Filadelfia, where crumbling cement homes, contorted tin roofs and soaked mattresses lined narrow dirt roads.
From Reuters • Aug. 18, 2021
Q. Marriage Impasse: I have been married for 10 years and we have a 4-year-old daughter.
From Slate • Jun. 3, 2014
The Palestinian billionaire Munib al-Masri, who comes from Nablus in the West Bank, is a leader of the Breaking the Impasse initiative.
From BBC • Jun. 28, 2013
It asserted that on the night of May 30-31st, about 12.45 A.M., four men and a red-haired woman left the Impasse Ronsin.
From My Memoirs by Steinheil, Marguerite
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.
