impracticable

[im-prak-ti-kuh-buhl]

adjective

1. not practicable; incapable of being put into practice with the available means.

   an impracticable plan.

2. unsuitable for practical use or purposes, as a device or material.

3. (of ground, places, etc.) impassable.

4. (of persons) hard to deal with because of stubbornness, stupidity, etc.

impracticable

/ ɪmˈpræktɪkəbəl /

adjective

1. incapable of being put into practice or accomplished; not feasible

2. unsuitable for a desired use; unfit

3. an archaic word for intractable

Other Word Forms

• impracticability noun
• impracticableness noun
• impracticably adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of impracticable¹

First recorded in 1645–55; im- ² + practicable

Example Sentences

It is hard to justify now, but back then it seemed impracticable to claw back our family’s time and tranquility.

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The minister for women and equalities Kemi Badenoch told the Times newspaper it was "impracticable for gender recognition regimes to vary in different parts of the country."

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It states that “any modification must be made in accordance with the donor’s probable intention” and only if the restriction has become “unlawful, impracticable, impossible to achieve, or wasteful.”

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Although it may seem impracticable, a renegotiation will look more appealing in the decades ahead of us, more so, I suspect, in the face of genuine hardship.

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"It may be impracticable that our distinctively American experiment of individual freedom should go on."

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