impassable
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.
Origin of impassable
1Other words from impassable
- im·pass·a·bil·i·ty, im·pass·a·ble·ness, noun
- im·pass·a·bly, adverb
Words Nearby impassable
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use impassable in a sentence
It was a technically demanding flight, traversing nearly 210 meters across rocky terrain largely impassable to the rover.
Here’s the best video yet of Ingenuity flying across Mars | Eric Berger | November 19, 2021 | Ars TechnicaThere were a couple of dirt roads in, too, but after the late-fall snowstorms, they became impassable.
This is the kind of area that is accessible by foot and by off-road vehicle, but difficult or impassable for heavier armored vehicles, like MRAPs or Strykers.
The Army’s Infantry Squad Vehicle seats 9 and can be dropped from a cargo plane | Kelsey D. Atherton | November 12, 2021 | Popular-ScienceEven with urban streets paved, for example, country roads remained an impassable mess, a problem that farmers were in no hurry to fix with their own tax dollars.
Did Cars Rescue Our Cities From Horses? - Issue 108: Change | Brandon Keim | November 10, 2021 | NautilusThe property itself was clean and quaint, but the road leading to the yurt was unpaved and nearly impassable in a rented convertible.
Unwisely, he took a shortcut and so missed the impassable Cabora Bassa cataracts blocking the river.
Dr. Livingstone, I Presume? The Victorian Explorer at 200 | Tim Jeal | March 19, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTLike a quietly heroic astronaut-to-be from Wapakoneta, Ohio, now gone, they have similar dreams that “nothing is impassable.”
Fire In Cairo: A View From the Arab Street | John Kael Weston | September 20, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTOur beach path was impassable, we found another way on the back road.
Many roads throughout Europe are impassable—Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are particularly stricken.
The road from the Rwanda-Congo border to Bukavu—a war-torn city on the southeastern edge of Lake Kivu—was almost impassable.
The land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version | VariousThe channel between Bernier and Dorre is about a mile and a half wide, but is so blocked up by rocks as to be impassable.
The direct road was quite impassable and we were compelled to get into the city through by-streets—not an easy task.
British Highways And Byways From A Motor Car | Thomas D. MurphyAt Naples, where I spent six days, I saw nothing, because in bad weather the town is impassable.
The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky | Modeste TchaikovskyHe came back, with the report that new shells had made the way impassable; and again Sara Lee shivered.
The Amazing Interlude | Mary Roberts Rinehart
British Dictionary definitions for impassable
/ (ɪmˈpɑːsəbəl) /
(of terrain, roads, etc) not able to be travelled through or over
Derived forms of impassable
- impassability or impassableness, noun
- impassably, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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