impediment
noun
Did you know?
Impediment comes from a Latin verb that meant "to interfere with" or "to get in the way of progress", as if by tripping up the feet of someone walking. In English, impediment still suggests an obstruction or obstacle along a path; for example, a lack of adequate roads and bridges would be called an impediment to economic development. Impediments usually get in the way of something we want. So we may speak of an impediment to communication, marriage, or progress--but something that slows the progress of aging, disease, or decay is rarely called an impediment.
Examples of impediment in a Sentence
Damien Cave, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2025
Many Tribal IDs do not list citizenship, creating an impediment for Native voters, who already have difficulties voting as reservation addresses are not as easy to list on voter registration forms.
—David Faris, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Apr. 2025
The core message is that the most important impediments affecting disabled people today are not limitations of their bodies but rather exclusionary attitudes and low expectations transposed on them by wider society.
—Gus Alexiou, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025
But workers at the factory say that business has slowed, as competition from global brands has increased, but also as the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank has put more and more impediments on owning and operating a business.
—Kat Lonsdorf, NPR, 1 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for impediment
Cite this Entry
“Impediment.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impediment. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
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impediment
noun
Medical Definition
impediment
noun
Legal Definition
impediment
noun
Penalber v. Blount, 550 So. 2d 577 (1989)
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