Dictionary

impediment en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ɪmˈpɛdɪmənt/
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Middle English impediment, borrowed from Latin impedimentum.

Meanings

1. A hindrance; that which impedes or obstructs progress; impedance.
   • I had gazed upon the fortifications and impediments that seemed to keep human beings from entering the citadel of nature, and rashly and ignorantly I had repined. 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC:
   • In the run-up to his return to the White House next Monday, Mr. Trump has rattled the world, and America’s neighborhood in particular, with a list of objectives – buying Greenland, seizing the Panama Canal, making Canada the 51st state – that treat friendly nations as weak interlocutors and impediments to be subdued. 2025 January 14, Howard LaFranchi, “In Biden-Trump handoff, a foreign policy shift for a changed world?”, in The Christian Science Monitor:
   • Your kind Deſire to knovv the State of my Health had not been unſatiſfied of ſo long, had not that ill State been the Impediment. 1720 July 30 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Alexander Pope, “To the Same [Letter to the Honourable Robert Digby, from Mr. Pope]”, in Mr Pope’s Literary Correspondence for Thirty Years; from 1704 to 1734. […], volume I, London: […] E[dmund] Curll, […], published 1735, →OCLC, page 129:
   • Thus far into the bowels of the land Have we marched on without impediment. c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
   • Patterns incised on this mineral form seem to evade the eye; you have to stand at a certain distance, and in a particular light, to make them out. This impediment is part of the charm for him. 1993, Carol Shields, chapter 2, in The Stone Diaries, Toronto, Ont.: Random House of Canada, page 64:
   • I require and charge you (as you will aunswere at the dreadefull daye of iudgemente, when the secretes of all hartes shalbee disclosed) that if either of you doe knowe any impedimente why ye maie not bee lawfully ioyned together in matrimonie, that ye confesse it. 1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, “Of Matrimonye”, in The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC:
2. A disability, especially one affecting the hearing or speech.
   • Better for you not to be tall! In fact it is almost a kindness of Heaven to be gifted with some safe impediment of body, slightly crooked back or the like, if you much dislike the career of honor under Friedrich Wilhelm. 1858, Thomas Carlyle, chapter VI, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book VI, page 9:
   • 1730, Joseph Addison, The Evidences of the Christian Religion, London: J. Tonson, Additional Discourses, Section 10, p. 308, Let us suppose a person blind and deaf from his birth, who being grown to man’s estate, is by the Dead-palsy, or some other cause, deprived of his Feeling, Tasting, and Smelling; and at the same time has the impediment of his Hearing removed, and the film taken from his eyes […]
   • […] Walter Ivans replied as rapidly as the impediment in his speech permitted. 1931, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 3, in The Glass Key, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, published 1972, page 56:
   • Working in a noisy factory left me with a slight hearing impediment.
   • And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 7:32:
3. (in-plural) Baggage, especially that of an army; impedimenta.
   • We were all on foot, officers and men alike. Our horses, baggage, and impediments had been left at Brashear to follow the column of General Emory. 1913, Thomas McManus, “The Battle of Irish Bend”, in The Twenty-Fifth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion, Rockville, Conn., page 36:

Forms

Deriveds

absolute impediment · speech impediment · impediment of crime · impedimented · diriment impediment · impedimental · hindering impediment

Relateds

impedimenta · impede

Synonyms

hindrance · obstruction · obstacle

Translations (72)

ru препя́тствие (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ar إِعَاقَة (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · fr irritant (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · cs překážka (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · cim briighe (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · sh пре̏пона (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · bg пре́чка (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · cs vada (disability, especially one affecting the hearing or speech) · pt impedimento (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · io impedivo (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ar عَقَبَة (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · fi vamma (disability, especially one affecting the hearing or speech) · ro impediment (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · bg спъ́нка (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · eo malhelpo (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · be перашко́да (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · la ōbex (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · fi este (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · hu akadály (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · pdt Hindaniss (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ar عَائِق (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · grc ἐγκοπή (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · uk перепо́на (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ru поме́ха (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ja 障害 (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · cmn 障礙 /障碍 (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ko 장애 (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · got 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌶𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · grc ἔχμα (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · la impedīmentum (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · nl belemmering (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · pl zawada (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · nl beletsel (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · mk препрека (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · es estorbo (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · nl hindernis (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ca impediment (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · uk прити́чина (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · de Hindernis (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · io impedo (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ml തടസ്സം (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · sh пре̏прека (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · sh prȅpona (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · fi vastus (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · bg обо́з (baggage, especially that of an army) · be перапо́на (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · pl przeszkoda (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · mi hauātanga (disability, especially one affecting the hearing or speech) · nl impediment (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · de Behinderung (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · nl obstakel (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ru обо́з (baggage, especially that of an army) · sh prȅpreka (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · sk prekážka (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ro piedică (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · bg препя́тствие (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · uk зава́да (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · pl utrudnienie (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · tl bagko (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ko 장해 (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · fr empêchement (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · sl ovira (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · te అడ్డం (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · uk перешко́да (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · pl trudność (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · fr entrave (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · gd amaladh (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · mk пречка (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · el εμπόδιο (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · sv hinder (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · te ఆటంకం (hindrance; that which impedes progress) · ro obstacol (hindrance; that which impedes progress)