impediment

UK/ɪmˈpɛdɪmənt/US/ɪmˈpɛdɪmənt/

nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,071 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: impediments

An impediment is something that stands in the way. A serious impediment, an impediment to progress, a speech impediment.

A speech impediment is the standard phrase for a difficulty in speaking, though many people prefer speech difference or speech disorder now. In the marriage service, the question about any impediment asks whether there is a legal bar to the wedding.

Definitions of impediment

1nounimpedimentSomething that stands in the way.C1
“Lack of money is the main impediment to the project going ahead.”

impediment is an obstacle.

Where it comes from

Latin impedimentum comes from impedire, to shackle the feet — in plus pes, a foot. Expedite is its opposite.

Proto-Indo-European
*ped-
Latin
impedimentum
Middle English
impediment
English, today
impediment

From Middle English impediment, borrowed from Latin impedimentum.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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impediment in the wild

The purpose of banns is to enable anyone to raise any canonical or civil legal impediments to the marriage, so as to prevent invalid marriages.
Banns of marriage
The relationships that give rise to the impediment have varied over time.
Affinity (Catholic canon law)
In many jurisdictions, under civil law, the marriage becomes valid if the impediment is removed.
Putative marriage
Validation involves the removal of a canonical impediment, or its dispensation, or the removal of defective consent.
Validation of marriage
In the canon law of the Catholic Church, an impediment is a legal obstacle that prevents a sacrament from being performed either validly or licitly or both.
Impediment (Catholic canon law)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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