impassable

English

Etymology

From im- +‎ pass +‎ -able.

Adjective

impassable (comparative more impassable, superlative most impassable)

1. (of a route, terrain, etc.) Incapable of being passed over, crossed, or negotiated.
   • 1949 November and December, “Notes and News: Festiniog and Welsh Highland Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 408:

     At the same time, the encroachment of vegetation proceeds apace, and broom and brambles have already made portions of the line impassable, even on foot.

   • 1960 December, “Talking of Trains: The railway and the Devon floods”, in Trains Illustrated, page 709:

     [...] at Cowley Bridge Junction, east of Exeter, both lines were impassable from about 1.30 p.m.—the first flooding of the junction for 36 years—and by the evening the water had risen two-thirds of the way up the platforms at St. Davids as Exeter faced its worst flooding for 60 years.

2. (of an obstacle) Incapable of being overcome or surmounted.
3. (of currency) Not usable as legal tender.

Synonyms

• unpassable

Translations

incapable of being passed over, crossed, or negotiated

• Azerbaijani: keçilməz
• Bulgarian: непроходим (bg) (neprohodim)
• Catalan: infranquejable
• German: unpassierbar (de), unüberwindbar (de), unüberwindlich (de)
• Greek: αδιάβατος (el) (adiávatos)

  Ancient: ἀδιάβατος (adiábatos), ἀπόρευτος (apóreutos), ἄπορος (áporos)

• Hungarian: járhatatlan (hu), áthatolhatatlan (hu), áthághatatlan (hu)
• Icelandic: ófært
• Latin: invius
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uframkommelig, ufremkommelig

  Nynorsk: uframkomeleg, uframkommeleg

• Old English: weġlēas
• Polish: nieprzejezdny (by car), nieprzekraczalny
• Romanian: impracticabil (ro)
• Spanish: infranqueable (es)
• Turkish: geçilmez

See also

• impassible

French

Etymology

From im- +‎ passable.

Adjective

impassable (plural impassables)

1. impassable

Further reading

• “impassable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.