impracticable
/ɪmˈpɹaktɪkəb(ə)l/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.20 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
5
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Not practicable; impossible or difficult in practice.
adj
impassable (of a passage or road)
Example Sentences
- "It has not been used for many years, and although it was impracticable to photograph the engine in the small confines of the shed it was possible to obtain a picture of the plate which it still carries showing the former ownership."
- "Prison abolitionists are dismissed as utopians and idealists whose ideas are at best unrealistic and impracticable, and, at worst, mystifying and foolish. This is a measure of how difficult it is to envision a social order that does not rely on the threat of sequestering people in dreadful places designed to separate them from their communities and families."
- "And yet this tough impracticable heart / Is govern'd by a dainty-finger'd girl ; […]"
- "H. is a person of extraordinary health & vigor, of unerring perception, & equal expression; and yet he is impracticable, and does not flow through his pen or (in any of our legitimate aqueducts) through his tongue."
- "They were not allowed, of course, to join us in the sitting room, partly that their practice might not be disturbed, but principally, that I was looked upon as an utter impracticable."
- "The strict constructionists had dwindled to a few impracticables, headed by John Randolph."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English im- English practicable English impracticable From im- + practicable.
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ɪmˈpɹaktɪkəb(ə)l/