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Impossible vs Impracticable - What's the difference?

impossible | impracticable | Synonyms |

As adjectives the difference between impossible and impracticable

is that impossible is not possible; not able to be done or happen while impracticable is not practicable; impossible or difficult in practice.

As nouns the difference between impossible and impracticable

is that impossible is {{cx|obsolete|lang=en}} an impossibility while impracticable is an unmanageable person.

impossible

English

Alternative forms

* inpossible (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Not possible; not able to be done or happen.
  • * 1865 , (Lewis Carroll), (w, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
    • Nothing is impossible , only impassible.
  • * 13 March 1962 ,
    • Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
    • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible , there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.}}
  • (colloquial, of a person) Very difficult to deal with.
  • (math, dated) imaginary
    • impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers

    Related terms

    * impossibility * impossibly

    Synonyms

    * (l) (rare)

    Antonyms

    * (not able to be done or happen) possible, inevitable

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • an impossibility
  • * Late 14th century': “Madame,” quod he, “this were an '''impossible !” — Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Franklin's Tale’, ''Canterbury Tales

    • Statistics

    * ----

    impracticable

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not practicable; impossible or difficult in practice.
  • Of a passage or road: impassable.
  • (obsolete) Of a person or thing: unmanageable.
  • * {{quote-book, 1713, , The Fair Penitent citation
    • , passage=And yet this tough impracticable heart / Is govern'd by a dainty-finger'd girl ;
  • * {{quote-book, c. 1841, , Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks, year_published=1960 citation
    • , passage=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.}}

    Antonyms

    * (impossible or difficult in practice) practicable

    Derived terms

    * impracticability * impracticableness * impracticably

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) An unmanageable person.
  • * {{quote-book, 1829, Henry Barkley Henderson, The Bengalee, or Sketches of Society and Manners in the East citation
    • , passage=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 . }}
  • * {{quote-book, 1867, , Famous Americans of Recent Times citation
    • , passage=The strict constructionists had dwindled to a few impracticables , headed by John Randolph. }}
  • * {{quote-book, 1870, , Society and Solitude citation
    • , passage=Then there are the gladiators, to whom it is always a battle ; 'tis no matter on which side, they fight for victory; then the heady men, the egotists, the monotones, the steriles, and the impracticables .}}