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English
Etymology
From Middle English impediment, borrowed from Latin impedimentum.
Pronunciation
Noun
impediment (plural impediments)
- A hindrance; that which impedes or obstructs progress; impedance.
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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :Thus far into the bowels of the land
Have we marched on without impediment.
1720 July 31 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Alexander Pope, “To the Same ”, in Mr Pope’s Literary Correspondence for Thirty Years; from 1704 to 1734. , volume I, London: E Curll, , published 1735, →OCLC, page 129: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.
1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), , Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. , volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: ">…] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC: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.
1993, Carol Shields, chapter 2, in The Stone Diaries, Toronto, Ont.: Random House of Canada, page 64: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.
2025 January 14, Howard LaFranchi, “In Biden-Trump handoff, a foreign policy shift for a changed world?”, in The Christian Science Monitor: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.
- A disability, especially one affecting the hearing or speech.
Working in a noisy factory left me with a slight hearing impediment.
- 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
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: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.
- (chiefly in the plural) Baggage, especially that of an army; impedimenta.
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: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.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
hindrance; that which impedes progress
- Arabic: عَائِق m (ʕāʔiq), عَقَبَة f (ʕaqaba), إِعَاقَة f (ʔiʕāqa)
- Belarusian: перашко́да f (pjeraškóda), перапо́на f (pjerapóna)
- Bulgarian: пре́чка (bg) f (préčka), спъ́нка (bg) f (spǎ́nka), препя́тствие (bg) n (prepjátstvie)
- Catalan: impediment (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 障礙 / 障碍 (zh) (zhàng'ài)
- Cimbrian: briighe m
- Czech: překážka (cs) f, vada (cs) f
- Dutch: hindernis (nl) f, obstakel (nl) n, belemmering (nl), beletsel (nl), impediment (nl)
- Esperanto: malhelpo
- Finnish: este (fi), vastus (fi)
- French: empêchement (fr) m, irritant (fr) m, entrave (fr) f
- German: Hindernis (de) n, Behinderung (de) f
- Gothic: 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌶𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 f (marzeins)
- Greek: εμπόδιο (el) n (empódio)
- Ancient: ἐγκοπή f (enkopḗ), ἔχμα n (ékhma)
- Hungarian: akadály (hu)
- Ido: impedo (io), impedivo (io)
- Japanese: 障害 (ja) (しょうがい, shōgai)
- Korean: 장애(障礙) (ko) (jang'ae), 장해(障害) (ko) (janghae)
- Latin: impedīmentum n, ōbex m or f
- Macedonian: пречка f (prečka), препрека f (prepreka)
- Malayalam: തടസ്സം (ml) (taṭassaṁ)
- Plautdietsch: Hindaniss n
- Polish: przeszkoda (pl) f, trudność (pl) f, utrudnienie (pl) n, zawada (pl) f
- Portuguese: impedimento (pt) m
- Romanian: impediment (ro) n, piedică (ro) f, obstacol (ro) n
- Russian: поме́ха (ru) f (poméxa), препя́тствие (ru) n (prepjátstvije)
- Scottish Gaelic: amaladh m
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: пре̏прека f, пре̏пона f
- Roman: prȅpreka (sh) f, prȅpona (sh) f
- Slovak: prekážka f
- Slovene: ovira (sl) f
- Spanish: estorbo (es)
- Swedish: hinder (sv) n
- Tagalog: bagko
- Telugu: ఆటంకం (te) (āṭaṅkaṁ), అడ్డం (te) (aḍḍaṁ)
- Ukrainian: перешко́да f (pereškóda), перепо́на f (perepóna), прити́чина f (prytýčyna), зава́да f (zaváda)
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disability, especially one affecting the hearing or speech
baggage, especially that of an army
References
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin impedimentum.
Noun
impediment n (plural impedimente)
- impediment
Declension