impracticable

[im-prak-ti-kuh-buh l]

See more synonyms for impracticable on Thesaurus.com

adjective

not practicable; incapable of being put into practice with the available means: an impracticable plan.
unsuitable for practical use or purposes, as a device or material.
(of ground, places, etc.) impassable.

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

Origin of impracticable

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

Related formsim·prac·ti·ca·bil·i·ty, im·prac·ti·ca·ble·ness, nounim·prac·ti·ca·bly, adverb

Can be confusedimpossible impracticable impractical improbable

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for impracticable

impossible, imprudent, insuperable, unfeasible, unwise, infeasible

Examples from the Web for impracticable

Historical Examples of impracticable

That mountain wall, impracticable as it seems, we have to scale.
The Roof of France
Matilda Betham-Edwards
The advice was good, but in the present temper of the army it was felt to be impracticable.
Stories from Thucydides
H. L. Havell
He was altogether splendid, massive, overpowering, and impracticable.
Little Dorrit
Charles Dickens
Flight was humiliating and dreadful, but to remain in England was impracticable.
Beaux and Belles of England
Mary Robinson
The ideal is as impracticable as it is puerile and retrograde.
Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 3 of 3)
John Morley

British Dictionary definitions for impracticable

impracticable

adjective

incapable of being put into practice or accomplished; not feasible
unsuitable for a desired use; unfit
an archaic word for intractable

Derived Formsimpracticability or impracticableness, nounimpracticably, 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

Word Origin and History for impracticable

adj.

"incapable of being done," 1670s, from assimilated form of in- (1) "not, opposite of" + practicable. Earlier in a sense of "impassable" (1650s).