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.
U.S. and regional officials familiar with the diplomacy around the deal said in the days leading up to the summit that there had been no progress in breaking the impasse around the F-35.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 7, 2026
The two sides have held several rounds of talks but Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez last week said they had made "no progress" towards ending the impasse.
From Barron's • Jul. 6, 2026
Last month the Commerce Department blocked Anthropic from selling its state-of-the-art models abroad owing to national security concerns and it took weeks of wrangling to resolve this impasse.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 2, 2026
The team and the quarterback have been conducting contract talks on a year-to-year basis since 2024, after Stafford delayed his arrival to training camp because of a contract impasse.
From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2026
But on the other side of the stone there was an impasse.
From "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien
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.
