impracticable

UK/ɪmˈpɹaktɪkəb(ə)l/

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,445 of 15,258mostly written

Impracticable means not able to be carried out. An impracticable plan.

It is different from impractical, which means unwise rather than impossible. Something impracticable cannot be done at all, whatever anybody is willing to spend.

Definitions of impracticable

1adjectiveimpracticableNot able to be carried out.C1
“The timetable was impracticable and everybody said so at the first meeting.”

impracticable is a quality.

Where it comes from

From in- + practicable.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

impracticable in the wild

The limited means of public transport rendered a camp for all members impracticable, so camps were instead arranged at district level.
Greenland Guide and Scout Association
Savva Krypetsky, a Serbian monk from Mount Athos, in what was then described as an impracticable mire.
Krypetsky Monastery
L., are not literally impracticable, and therefore are not used metaphorically.
Hypocatastasis
Although some critics thought the project to be impracticable, Dom Eligius found support from the outset in Brepols Publishers from Turnhout.
Corpus Christianorum
With no existing secondary tournament, the Recopa Sudamericana became an impracticable competition until the introduction of the Copa Sudamericana in 2002.
1998 Recopa Sudamericana

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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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