impassible

[ im-pas-uh-buhl ]

adjective

1. incapable of suffering pain.
2. incapable of suffering harm.
3. incapable of emotion; impassive.

impassible

/ ɪmˈpæsəbəl /

adjective

1. not susceptible to pain or injury
2. impassive or unmoved

Derived Forms

• imˌpassiˈbility, noun
• imˈpassibly, adverb

Other Words From

• im·passi·bili·ty im·passi·ble·ness noun
• im·passi·bly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of impassible¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English word from Late Latin word impassībilis. See im- ², passible

Example Sentences

Key roads remain impassible, preventing Haitians like 52-year-old Nadine Prosper from reaching one of the few operating hospitals.

From Seattle Times

“Travel is highly discouraged,” weather officials said, warning that mountain roads across the Sierra will be dangerous and potentially impassible: snow-covered, slippery and with possible downed branches from high winds.

From Los Angeles Times

The Florida Keys, a low-lying chain of islands south of Miami, has estimated that nearly half the roads in the county will be at least occasionally impassible in fewer than 25 years under moderate estimates of ocean increases.

From National Geographic

They avoided the festival ground’s central “city,” which had become almost impassible with mud, and walked out along the open desert, with no clear sense of what might await them when they reached the paved road miles away, or whether they might become stranded en route.

From Los Angeles Times

Graphic, harrowing videos of the wildfires have surfaced on social media sites, posted by those who managed to receive intermittent cell signal — some show victims laying motionless in the street as captured by passengers of vehicles that navigate through seemingly impassible smoke and flame, others show people fleeing into treacherous waters full of flaming debris.

From Salon